I've been hoping to find time to post a couple of new stories this week. I spent two weeks on a boat on the Gulf, which is worth mentioning (carefully) here. And there is a story somewhere in our mountain biking trip that took place during a thunderstorm last weekend. So far I have not found time to tell these tales, so this is just interim drivel.
The Ute is in the basement awaiting a summer cleanup. It has passed the 2000 mile mark and needs a new chain and a little brake maintenance. In the mean time, I've been riding the Soma Double Cross to and from work. However, last night I did a second round of cleanup on the mountain bike fleet, following last weeks thunderstorm ride, so I wanted to get my RZ out for a spin. Except for the lack of rack and fenders, the RZ may be a better tool for my daily ride.
Right now, my normal bicycle commuting route is closed. Dobie Road is getting a new bridge. In the mean time, I'm taking Hamilton Road, which has a very wide road bed, with wide rough dirt (and broken asphalt, glass, rocks, etc.) shoulders, but a very narrow strip of pavement between the white lines. In addition to being narrow, Hamilton is crumbling. In many places it's rough enough that attempting to ride it on a typical road bike would certainly result in pinch flats and bent rims. To make matters worse, "rush hour" usage of Hamilton by automobiles has increased noticeably with Dobie closed.
Riding Hamilton on the RZ was an improvement. Those fat 2.25 inch tires at 35 psi in combination with the front and rear suspension, made it easier to hold my line on the white line. At one point, however, I allowed a car that cut too close to push me onto the rough shoulder, which was not a good idea because then all the following cars expected me to stay on the shoulder, which, due to the aforementioned obstacles, as well as driveways and mailboxes, was not a continuous option. The plush 5 inches of front and rear travel on the RZ allowed me to comfortably float through those nasty cracks, ruts, and potholes, while easily maintaining control of the bike.
So, I guess my conclusion for all this drivel would be that in some conditions, a plush dual suspension bike might be the safest and most appropriate commuter bike. Therefore, someone might want to consider building a dual suspension cargo bike. Something that looks like a Ute, but has a decent suspension fork up front. Up front, this could be accomplished by simply adding a suspension fork to the Ute. To keep the geometry right, the 29" wheel might need to be traded for a 26" wheel to compensate for travel. The challenge (maybe?) would be to build a rear suspension that could handle the varying loads of a cargo bike, ideally without having to inflate or deflate the shock. It would need to function acceptably with my 150 pound weight when empty, but also work at 250 pounds when heavily loaded with groceries or books.
Showing posts with label bicycle commuting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bicycle commuting. Show all posts
30 June 2010
16 April 2009
Bikes belong...
on the sidewalk?
on the road?
These articles appeared on The State News opinion pages recently.
You know what I think!
on the road?
These articles appeared on The State News opinion pages recently.
You know what I think!
03 April 2009
Time, time, time...
Where's it all go? I was up late last night working on plans for yet another big fish sampling project. If it happens, this one will be on the Upper Mississippi.
The kids and I squeezed in a run-and-ride last night, but we missed piano practicing and didn't eat dinner until Cindy came home at 8:30. It's still getting dark before she rides home from work. Anything for more time.
Pedaled to work this morning in a 40 degree rain. I wrapped myself in a PTFE hornet suit. Dry on the inside, and brightly visible on the outside. Traffic is less with the schools on spring break. I scared a couple of deer. White tails in the air splashing through a little wetland. Sometimes I think it's worth the extra time it takes to ride my bicycle to work. Other times I wonder.
Had a nice chat with the chief engineer for our county road commission. They'll be replacing the bridge over the Red Ceder on Dobie Road this summer. It's that old narrow bridge with the wooden sidewalk. I'll have to take pictures of it before they tear it down. ASHTO funds will get us a new bridge, but the rest of Dobie is years from improvements. We talked about the rest of Dobie, and why it hasn't been improved. Time, time, time. That's a story I'll save for later.
The kids and I squeezed in a run-and-ride last night, but we missed piano practicing and didn't eat dinner until Cindy came home at 8:30. It's still getting dark before she rides home from work. Anything for more time.
Pedaled to work this morning in a 40 degree rain. I wrapped myself in a PTFE hornet suit. Dry on the inside, and brightly visible on the outside. Traffic is less with the schools on spring break. I scared a couple of deer. White tails in the air splashing through a little wetland. Sometimes I think it's worth the extra time it takes to ride my bicycle to work. Other times I wonder.
Had a nice chat with the chief engineer for our county road commission. They'll be replacing the bridge over the Red Ceder on Dobie Road this summer. It's that old narrow bridge with the wooden sidewalk. I'll have to take pictures of it before they tear it down. ASHTO funds will get us a new bridge, but the rest of Dobie is years from improvements. We talked about the rest of Dobie, and why it hasn't been improved. Time, time, time. That's a story I'll save for later.
22 February 2009
Ute Mitts
We went to the MMBA Expo today. Lots of cool mountain biking gear and info to check out. Considering the complete absence of mountains Michigan's Lower Peninsula, there is really quite a network of mountain biking trails, thanks in large part to the MMBA. We don't do much mountain biking these days, but someday that may change.
We picked up the Moose Mitts for my Ute. They seem very nice. They are simply a large mitt that covers the handlebar and secures with velcro. The mitt is made with a durable woven nylon outside and a soft fleece lining inside. There's an interior pocket, and little interior loop to keep the mitt in position. The opening is designed so that it's easy for the rider's gloved hands to slide inside. Very simple. Very cool.
We picked up the Moose Mitts for my Ute. They seem very nice. They are simply a large mitt that covers the handlebar and secures with velcro. The mitt is made with a durable woven nylon outside and a soft fleece lining inside. There's an interior pocket, and little interior loop to keep the mitt in position. The opening is designed so that it's easy for the rider's gloved hands to slide inside. Very simple. Very cool.
21 February 2009
Kona Ute: Week Two
I knew I'd been lucky my first week riding the Ute, with moderate temperatures and roads mostly free of snow and ice. That luck didn't hold for the second week. I guess that's OK, because I really wanted to try out those studded tires.
I'd purchased the Nokian Gazza Extreme winter tires the same day I picked up the Ute. I wasn't sure I'd need them this winter, but I was afraid I might, and I knew I'd need them next winter. They're pretty pricey, but I found them on sale and got a good deal. Part of my decision to buy the Kona Ute was due to its capacity for big fat tires. The Gazza Extremes are 29 x 2.1-inch tires, with widely spaced knobs, each knob being topped with carbide stud. They are in no way a road tire, but the roads of my commute are beginning to look more like Jeep trails than roads, anyway. OK, so that's an exaggeration, and in truth, I would have preferred a less aggressive tread, but I wanted a studded tire with as much floatation as possible, and the Extremes are the fattest studded tire I could find. I wanted the floatation because my experience has been that attempting to ride on snow-packed roads with skinny tires is very difficult. Skinny tires are great in soft snow and on ice, but packed roads and icy ruts are different. The front tire will break through the snowpack and get diverted sideways very unpredictably. My hope was that going from a 32mm tire at 60 psi to a 55mm tire at 30 psi, along with the switch to wider handle bars, would allow me to safely negotiate those snowpacked roads and icy ruts.
The 2.1-inch tires fit the Kona Ute with room to spare. The casing of the Nokians, mounted on these rims, measures only about 1.75, but the knobs protrude outward beyond the casing such that 2.1 inches is probably a pretty accurate estimate of the width. The Ute has about 3 inches of clearance in the fork and frame, so an even larger tire would fit just fine.
Although the tires fit the frame and fork, I had to make some adjustments to the fenders. The clearance is the closest at the top of the rear wheel. The Ute frame has a crossbar directly above the rear hub, putting a limit on how far above the tire the fender can be mounted, but once I got the fender moved up to the cross bar, there was adequate clearance.
I also had to move the bottom rear of the front fender out away from the tire. Front fenders tend to move from side to side, and the Nokians knobs initially tended to catch the fender struts when the fender wobbled. This would occur mostly when hitting a bump or crossing railroad tracks. A rapid turn of the bars would cause the fender to move (worsened, I'm sure, by the extension I have added to the fender) and the knobs would buzz against the struts. After a couple days of that, I decided to construct a brace to keep the fender from swaying. I bent a soft piece of aluminum strap to attach at the fork crown and at three points along the fender. It works very well. It holds the fender quite firmly while riding, but still allows enough flexibility that it's unlikely that an impact will break the fender.
With the fenders and studded tires the Ute seems to be a pretty capable snow bike. Traction certainly isn't an issue. There wasn't enough snow last week to really test the setup on deeper packed snow, but it handles the clumps of ice and frozen slush piles much better than my skinny-tire rig.
The tires and fenders were great, but my fingers were not holding up. A couple of mornings the temperature was in the low teens and there was a very strong wind out of the west. I don't have the best mittens. I usually wear a pair of medium weight lobster mitts under an old pair shell mitts from Cindy's OR days, but my fingers were freezing. I knew this was coming, too. Last winter my fingers were extremely uncomfortable on my commute. So I called Trails-Edge to order a pair of Moose Mitts, which they make just down the road in Plymouth, MI. They had to make them before they could send them, so they weren't ready until yesterday. As it turned out, they're going to be at the MMBA Expo in Lansing tomorrow, so it looks like I'll be going to the Expo to pick them up.
In the mean time, since I had a few days of really cold weather to get through, I tried my own version of Moose Mitts. Since I've been wearing boots or winter running shoes for my ride, my neoprene shoe covers didn't currently have job, so I put them to use. Threading my bars through them, and wrapping a strap around them actually seemed to work. Sort of. It helped my fingers survive the week.
And today we're getting another six inches of snow...
I'd purchased the Nokian Gazza Extreme winter tires the same day I picked up the Ute. I wasn't sure I'd need them this winter, but I was afraid I might, and I knew I'd need them next winter. They're pretty pricey, but I found them on sale and got a good deal. Part of my decision to buy the Kona Ute was due to its capacity for big fat tires. The Gazza Extremes are 29 x 2.1-inch tires, with widely spaced knobs, each knob being topped with carbide stud. They are in no way a road tire, but the roads of my commute are beginning to look more like Jeep trails than roads, anyway. OK, so that's an exaggeration, and in truth, I would have preferred a less aggressive tread, but I wanted a studded tire with as much floatation as possible, and the Extremes are the fattest studded tire I could find. I wanted the floatation because my experience has been that attempting to ride on snow-packed roads with skinny tires is very difficult. Skinny tires are great in soft snow and on ice, but packed roads and icy ruts are different. The front tire will break through the snowpack and get diverted sideways very unpredictably. My hope was that going from a 32mm tire at 60 psi to a 55mm tire at 30 psi, along with the switch to wider handle bars, would allow me to safely negotiate those snowpacked roads and icy ruts.
The 2.1-inch tires fit the Kona Ute with room to spare. The casing of the Nokians, mounted on these rims, measures only about 1.75, but the knobs protrude outward beyond the casing such that 2.1 inches is probably a pretty accurate estimate of the width. The Ute has about 3 inches of clearance in the fork and frame, so an even larger tire would fit just fine.
Although the tires fit the frame and fork, I had to make some adjustments to the fenders. The clearance is the closest at the top of the rear wheel. The Ute frame has a crossbar directly above the rear hub, putting a limit on how far above the tire the fender can be mounted, but once I got the fender moved up to the cross bar, there was adequate clearance.
I also had to move the bottom rear of the front fender out away from the tire. Front fenders tend to move from side to side, and the Nokians knobs initially tended to catch the fender struts when the fender wobbled. This would occur mostly when hitting a bump or crossing railroad tracks. A rapid turn of the bars would cause the fender to move (worsened, I'm sure, by the extension I have added to the fender) and the knobs would buzz against the struts. After a couple days of that, I decided to construct a brace to keep the fender from swaying. I bent a soft piece of aluminum strap to attach at the fork crown and at three points along the fender. It works very well. It holds the fender quite firmly while riding, but still allows enough flexibility that it's unlikely that an impact will break the fender.
With the fenders and studded tires the Ute seems to be a pretty capable snow bike. Traction certainly isn't an issue. There wasn't enough snow last week to really test the setup on deeper packed snow, but it handles the clumps of ice and frozen slush piles much better than my skinny-tire rig.
The tires and fenders were great, but my fingers were not holding up. A couple of mornings the temperature was in the low teens and there was a very strong wind out of the west. I don't have the best mittens. I usually wear a pair of medium weight lobster mitts under an old pair shell mitts from Cindy's OR days, but my fingers were freezing. I knew this was coming, too. Last winter my fingers were extremely uncomfortable on my commute. So I called Trails-Edge to order a pair of Moose Mitts, which they make just down the road in Plymouth, MI. They had to make them before they could send them, so they weren't ready until yesterday. As it turned out, they're going to be at the MMBA Expo in Lansing tomorrow, so it looks like I'll be going to the Expo to pick them up.
In the mean time, since I had a few days of really cold weather to get through, I tried my own version of Moose Mitts. Since I've been wearing boots or winter running shoes for my ride, my neoprene shoe covers didn't currently have job, so I put them to use. Threading my bars through them, and wrapping a strap around them actually seemed to work. Sort of. It helped my fingers survive the week.
And today we're getting another six inches of snow...
14 February 2009
Kona Ute: Week One
I really lucked out this week: After a warm weekend, and some heavy rain, most of the snow melted away and my first week on the Kona Ute was nearly snow-free. The roads were a little icy most mornings, and the Ute sat outside my office in a heavy rain most of the day Tuesday, and I rode home in snow yesterday. Nonetheless, it was a pretty good week for riding a new bicycle to work. I even rode it to my dentist appointment Monday afternoon.
Here are my first impressions:
The Ute is a comfortable bicycle and is going to make a great commuter. The fat smooth tires on big wheels make for nice ride. I used about 40 psi in each. The road shoulders and bike lane on my commute are piled with gravel and chunks of asphalt that have been pushed out of the giant potholes in the road. In some places the debris on the shoulder was so bad I was forced out into the lane. Of course, in those same places the asphalt in the lane is completely broken and some potholes are nearly a foot deep. So far I've survived it, and so has the Ute.
The swept-back handlebars are comfortable, and the upright position is nice in traffic. I rode to work in an extreme headwind one morning, and found myself wishing for dropped bars, but I think that the Ute bars will be great most of the time.
The brakes and shifters work just fine. They are rather "low-end" components, but seem perfectly adequate. Some reviewers have complained that the Ute's Hayes mechanical front disc brake doesn't have the power it should, but I have no complaints. I had to do quite a bit of tweaking to the front derailer when I got the Ute. It wasn't set up quite right and the chain was rubbing the derailer in most gears. I moved the derailer up a couple millimeters and adjusted the angle. Now it shifts perfectly through all gears on both rings. No complaints there.
The bell works quite well. Of course, some folks can't seem to hear it.
The Big Ute Bag works pretty well, and carries lots of stuff. Nothing's fallen out, and it hasn't fallen off. I can quickly drop my computer bag into it, fasten it up, and ride away. I'm keeping a few tools in one of the zippered pockets on the lid flap, and my bicycle lock in the other. I've been buckling the inside fasteners of the pannier, which means the lid flap isn't held down (see the photos in the previous post). I'd like it better if there were separate fasteners for the flap and the interior compartment so the bag could be held closed inside and the flap could also fastened down. Having the tools and lock in the flap seems to keep the flap from flapping.
The Big Ute Bag hangs from the Ute frame rack on three big hooks. There are two elastic bands that hold the bag down and keep it against the bike. It moves a little on giant potholes, huge chunks of asphalt, and rough railroad tracks, so I'd like to attach it to the bike more securely, I think. However, for the all-day rain, I pulled the bag off the Ute and brought it (the bag) into my office so it wouldn't fill with rain, which would be more difficult if the bag were secured to the frame. A quick-release system like the Ortlieb panniers have would be great.
Hanging all the load on one side of the rack isn't ideal, so I'm considering ordering a second Big Ute Bag for the other side. They're pretty expensive, so I'm waiting until I've used this one for a while first to be sure I like it. I've looked into trying to mount baskets on each side of the bike. I think I'd like having a 25 to 30" basket on each side, mounted pretty low, as long as they looked decent. Stainless wire would be best. I'd rather not do the milk crate thing. The Ute bag could still hang as it is designed, and it would sort of be inside the basket. I can't find any such baskets, however. Wald doesn't make any that large. Custom made stainless baskets could be had, but for a very steep price.
In the mean time, I've been hanging my Arc'teryx Transit bag on the right side of the Ute, with the Big Ute Bag on the left. For the last couple of years I've worn the Transit on my back with my computer inside it. My lunch, clothes, and tools have ridden in one or two panniers. Now I've simply tied a couple of loops of webbing to the left side of the pannier, and a couple of 'biners from our rock climbing days clip the bag to the webbing. A bungee holds the bag against the frame. It works well, but it's less convenient than I'd prefer because it takes a few minutes to get it all secured.
As I mentioned above, the roads here are a mess. The grit that comes off wet tires in the morning is terrible. When I got to work Monday morning, I tried to lower the kickstand, but there was so much sand and mud on the kickstand post, that it was difficult get it to fall into position. Even with the Cascadia fenders, with their extra long flap, the grit was coming off the front tire and packing into the kickstand hinge, as well as the bicycle bottom bracket. I solved that problem Monday night with the addition of an extra flap on the front fender. I've often added a longer flap to the fender on my commuter bike to keep my feet dry and to keep the chain cleaner. It works well. For the Ute, I cut a section from an old Zefal fender, and bolted it to the Cascadia flap with two little stainless steel bolts. This modification makes the fender swing a little more side to side, but it doesn't seem to cause any problems. It helps tremendously to keep things clean and dry.
I also added a little flap to the front of the kickstand to further keep grit out of the mechanism. It's a little kludgy, sort of like a milk crate pannier, but it's not very visible.
I was a little surprised that the Kona Ute will wobble or sway side-to-side a little with a big load on the back, but it really only does it when starting from a stop if I try to stand up and pedal hard. This is a common issue with touring bikes when heavily loaded in the rear. I'm not referring to high-speed wobble, but a low-speed oscillation. Like a tail-wagging-the-dog, sort of thing. My Soma would do it with two full panniers. We noticed a similar tendency for our tandem to waggle last summer when we had the panniers and trunk rack packed full on the rear rack. If I tried to stand up to crank up a hill, the tail end would seem to sway side-to-side. A bike like the Ute, which is designed to carry a heavy load, is more resistant to this side-to-side sway, but it's not completely immune. The rear is built sort of like an aluminum bridge truss, and it appears that it would be rather inflexible, but maybe up front there's some twisting under load. I'm just guessing - I'm no frame designer (although I can always dream). Maybe the front of the Ute should be built more like the front end of our Cannondale Tandem MT800. Those are some gigantic tubes!
It may be that the bicycle frame isn't flexing at all. Perhaps it's simply that it feels like it because each time you try to lean the bike to the right, you have to move a big load from left to right on the rear. Simple inertia. So maybe it would be better to get the load lower in the back. The higher the load, the more it has to move side-to-side as the bicycle moves.
I don't think the potential for a little sway is a huge issue. I've read that others have had some sway on Xtracycles and even the big and stout Surly Big Dummy. It doesn't really seem to affect the handling, and it's quite controllable. It works best to keep your butt on the saddle and spin smoothly, which is easier to do with with clipless pedals - something I'm trying to avoid on my everyday bicycle. When moving down the road at 10 to 15 mph, the Ute is really quite stable, even with my commuting load on the back. Regardless, it's probably unwise to go screaming downhill on a cargo bike with a full load.
I'm still convinced that the best way to haul really big loads on a bicycle is with a two-wheel trailer. We've hauled some monster loads in our old Burley Solo, including a big pile of pumpkins. I guess if I were going to use a bicycle to haul really big loads all the time, I'd use a trailer. Even loaded with 60 pounds of pumpkins, the Burley trailer has no discernible effect on the handling of the bicycle, although some increased stopping distance does result.
In conclusion, while I'm still trying to figure out the best way to carry my stuff (and I'm leaning heavily towards a second Big Ute Bag), I think the Ute is going to make a really nice everyday bicycle. That's just what I wanted.
Here are my first impressions:
The Ute is a comfortable bicycle and is going to make a great commuter. The fat smooth tires on big wheels make for nice ride. I used about 40 psi in each. The road shoulders and bike lane on my commute are piled with gravel and chunks of asphalt that have been pushed out of the giant potholes in the road. In some places the debris on the shoulder was so bad I was forced out into the lane. Of course, in those same places the asphalt in the lane is completely broken and some potholes are nearly a foot deep. So far I've survived it, and so has the Ute.
The swept-back handlebars are comfortable, and the upright position is nice in traffic. I rode to work in an extreme headwind one morning, and found myself wishing for dropped bars, but I think that the Ute bars will be great most of the time.
The brakes and shifters work just fine. They are rather "low-end" components, but seem perfectly adequate. Some reviewers have complained that the Ute's Hayes mechanical front disc brake doesn't have the power it should, but I have no complaints. I had to do quite a bit of tweaking to the front derailer when I got the Ute. It wasn't set up quite right and the chain was rubbing the derailer in most gears. I moved the derailer up a couple millimeters and adjusted the angle. Now it shifts perfectly through all gears on both rings. No complaints there.
The bell works quite well. Of course, some folks can't seem to hear it.
The Big Ute Bag works pretty well, and carries lots of stuff. Nothing's fallen out, and it hasn't fallen off. I can quickly drop my computer bag into it, fasten it up, and ride away. I'm keeping a few tools in one of the zippered pockets on the lid flap, and my bicycle lock in the other. I've been buckling the inside fasteners of the pannier, which means the lid flap isn't held down (see the photos in the previous post). I'd like it better if there were separate fasteners for the flap and the interior compartment so the bag could be held closed inside and the flap could also fastened down. Having the tools and lock in the flap seems to keep the flap from flapping.
The Big Ute Bag hangs from the Ute frame rack on three big hooks. There are two elastic bands that hold the bag down and keep it against the bike. It moves a little on giant potholes, huge chunks of asphalt, and rough railroad tracks, so I'd like to attach it to the bike more securely, I think. However, for the all-day rain, I pulled the bag off the Ute and brought it (the bag) into my office so it wouldn't fill with rain, which would be more difficult if the bag were secured to the frame. A quick-release system like the Ortlieb panniers have would be great.
Hanging all the load on one side of the rack isn't ideal, so I'm considering ordering a second Big Ute Bag for the other side. They're pretty expensive, so I'm waiting until I've used this one for a while first to be sure I like it. I've looked into trying to mount baskets on each side of the bike. I think I'd like having a 25 to 30" basket on each side, mounted pretty low, as long as they looked decent. Stainless wire would be best. I'd rather not do the milk crate thing. The Ute bag could still hang as it is designed, and it would sort of be inside the basket. I can't find any such baskets, however. Wald doesn't make any that large. Custom made stainless baskets could be had, but for a very steep price.
In the mean time, I've been hanging my Arc'teryx Transit bag on the right side of the Ute, with the Big Ute Bag on the left. For the last couple of years I've worn the Transit on my back with my computer inside it. My lunch, clothes, and tools have ridden in one or two panniers. Now I've simply tied a couple of loops of webbing to the left side of the pannier, and a couple of 'biners from our rock climbing days clip the bag to the webbing. A bungee holds the bag against the frame. It works well, but it's less convenient than I'd prefer because it takes a few minutes to get it all secured.
As I mentioned above, the roads here are a mess. The grit that comes off wet tires in the morning is terrible. When I got to work Monday morning, I tried to lower the kickstand, but there was so much sand and mud on the kickstand post, that it was difficult get it to fall into position. Even with the Cascadia fenders, with their extra long flap, the grit was coming off the front tire and packing into the kickstand hinge, as well as the bicycle bottom bracket. I solved that problem Monday night with the addition of an extra flap on the front fender. I've often added a longer flap to the fender on my commuter bike to keep my feet dry and to keep the chain cleaner. It works well. For the Ute, I cut a section from an old Zefal fender, and bolted it to the Cascadia flap with two little stainless steel bolts. This modification makes the fender swing a little more side to side, but it doesn't seem to cause any problems. It helps tremendously to keep things clean and dry.
I also added a little flap to the front of the kickstand to further keep grit out of the mechanism. It's a little kludgy, sort of like a milk crate pannier, but it's not very visible.
I was a little surprised that the Kona Ute will wobble or sway side-to-side a little with a big load on the back, but it really only does it when starting from a stop if I try to stand up and pedal hard. This is a common issue with touring bikes when heavily loaded in the rear. I'm not referring to high-speed wobble, but a low-speed oscillation. Like a tail-wagging-the-dog, sort of thing. My Soma would do it with two full panniers. We noticed a similar tendency for our tandem to waggle last summer when we had the panniers and trunk rack packed full on the rear rack. If I tried to stand up to crank up a hill, the tail end would seem to sway side-to-side. A bike like the Ute, which is designed to carry a heavy load, is more resistant to this side-to-side sway, but it's not completely immune. The rear is built sort of like an aluminum bridge truss, and it appears that it would be rather inflexible, but maybe up front there's some twisting under load. I'm just guessing - I'm no frame designer (although I can always dream). Maybe the front of the Ute should be built more like the front end of our Cannondale Tandem MT800. Those are some gigantic tubes!
It may be that the bicycle frame isn't flexing at all. Perhaps it's simply that it feels like it because each time you try to lean the bike to the right, you have to move a big load from left to right on the rear. Simple inertia. So maybe it would be better to get the load lower in the back. The higher the load, the more it has to move side-to-side as the bicycle moves.
I don't think the potential for a little sway is a huge issue. I've read that others have had some sway on Xtracycles and even the big and stout Surly Big Dummy. It doesn't really seem to affect the handling, and it's quite controllable. It works best to keep your butt on the saddle and spin smoothly, which is easier to do with with clipless pedals - something I'm trying to avoid on my everyday bicycle. When moving down the road at 10 to 15 mph, the Ute is really quite stable, even with my commuting load on the back. Regardless, it's probably unwise to go screaming downhill on a cargo bike with a full load.
I'm still convinced that the best way to haul really big loads on a bicycle is with a two-wheel trailer. We've hauled some monster loads in our old Burley Solo, including a big pile of pumpkins. I guess if I were going to use a bicycle to haul really big loads all the time, I'd use a trailer. Even loaded with 60 pounds of pumpkins, the Burley trailer has no discernible effect on the handling of the bicycle, although some increased stopping distance does result.
In conclusion, while I'm still trying to figure out the best way to carry my stuff (and I'm leaning heavily towards a second Big Ute Bag), I think the Ute is going to make a really nice everyday bicycle. That's just what I wanted.
08 February 2009
My Kona Ute
Kona's Ute is a bicycle designed to carry more stuff than an ordinary bike. As cargo bicycles go, it's not the biggest load hauler around (see the Yuba Mundo, Surly's Big Dummy, and Xtracycle), but given the price and my intended use, I decided the Ute was the way to go. I purchased my Ute through Rapid Transit Cycles, an excellent commuter-oriented bicycle shop in Chicago. The staff were very helpful and they worked hard to locate 2009 Ute for me.
The Kona Ute comes in two sizes, I got the larger 20-inch frame. It has comfortable swept-back bars that give the rider an upright position, probably an advantage in traffic, less advantageous in a headwind. The Ute has a front disc brake and rear V-brake. It's geared low by road bike standards, but not quite as low as most mountain bikes. It has an 8-speed rear cassette with 11- to 32-tooth cogs, and up front the crankset has a 26- and a 36-tooth chainring. With those gear options, I won't be going fast on this one. But it's not about speed. The Ute comes with big 29" wheels and wide 47mm road tires for a smooth ride on rough roads. The frame and fork have plenty of clearance for at least 2.5-inch tires. I also picked up some 2.1-inch studded winter tires for it, but I'm hoping I won't have to put them on until next winter. This warm weekend has me feeling optimistic, but the weather god might have her own plan.
I was looking for a bicycle that would facilitate daily transportation to and from work, coupled with frequent trips to the grocery and hardware store. I've had great success riding to work on my Soma Double Cross, but I've always wished I had a little more capacity for carrying groceries or other miscellaneous stuff in addition to my usual cargo of laptop computer, stack of books and papers, lunch, work clothes, and small assortment of bicycle tools.
The Kona Ute's wheelbase is about 10 inches longer than that of my Soma Double Cross, perhaps 11 or 12 inches longer than a typical road bike. That's still much shorter than a tandem bicycle, which has wheelbase around 28 inches longer than an ordinary bicycle. The Ute's extra length is in the rear of the frame between the seatpost and the rear axle, where the frame is formed into an integrated rack with a 33-inch long wooden deck. This effectively allows the Ute to carry the equivalent of two additional panniers on the frame. One drawback that I will mention is that the hooks on most standard panniers are too small to grasp the fat tubes the form the Ute's rack, but I'm sure that fat tubes are necessary for strength.
The Kona Ute comes with a single, gigantic, orange bag, sized to readily accommodate two standard grocery bags. The bag is made of a waterproof material, but has a pretty open design. Any precious cargo in the bags, such as a laptop computer, will need have it's own water-resistant container. If this bag proves useful, I may get another. I might also consider attaching a big wire basket about the size of the orange Ute bag, or mount a horizontal rail on the frame that will allow me to use my Ortlieb panniers on one side.
An everyday bike should be as user-friendly as possible. If a bicycle is going to be used for daily transportation, including the last-minute oh-no-we're-out-of-milk trip, it needs to be convenient to simply jump on it and go. That means avoiding the need for special shoes and clothes, and having the necessary lock, lights, and cargo containers sitting on the bike, ready to roll. It needs to be just about as easy as jumping in the mini-van (and it's certain to be more fun). For now, I've mounted some smallish battery-powered lights on the handlebars. It's getting light enough in the morning now that these should suffice, but in the long run I plan to install a tire-driven generator (dynamo) that powers a good headlight and taillight.
Fenders and a kickstand also go a long way towards making a bicycle a useful piece of transportation. The Ute comes with a smallish fender up front, but none in the rear. I opted to install the Planet Bike Cascadia 29er fenders because they're big enough to cover the Ute's huge tires, and because the long rubbery extensions do a great job of keeping spray from reaching feet and the bicycle's bottom bracket, crankset, and chain.
The Ute comes with a two-legged kickstand, which looks nice and seems to function really well. I can see that it's difficult to design a two-legged center-mounted kickstand. If the kickstand is narrow enough to stay inside the chain when up, it's not wide enough to support the bike when down. If the kickstand is wide enough to support the bike, then it needs to stay under the chain when it folds up, in which case the pivot point has to hang a few inches below the bottom bracket. Balancing the width, potential for chain contact, and distance the thing hangs down, makes for tight constraints on design. We'll see how it works.
The first thing I noticed when riding the Ute is that it's tall. It's big wheels, and high bottom bracket, along with the upright position, make me feel like I'm really up in the sky. This might be a drawback for a utility bike, but since the load will be carried low alongside the wheels, I think it will be fine. The swept-back bars are comfortable; they're as wide as most mountain bike bars, but swept-back handles give them an unusual feel. It came with a very short handlebar stem, which I traded for a longer one since I'm fairly tall and the reach felt pretty short with the stubby stem.
This morning I took it to the grocery store for coffee and milk. With the long wheelbase and fat street tires, the ride was smooth and comfortable. The upright position was nice for navigating through the grocery store parking lot. The big front wheel was too tall to squeeze into the crappy rack at the grocery store; I used the kickstand to stand the Ute beside the rack. The big orange pannier held the jug of milk just fine. The ride was unaffected by a single jug of milk on one side of the bike. Later in the day, after some neighborhood cruising with the kids on their bikes, I made another trip to the store for chips and salsa. No problem with that load either, except that now it's in my belly.
Tomorrow I'll ride my Kona Ute to work!
The Kona Ute comes in two sizes, I got the larger 20-inch frame. It has comfortable swept-back bars that give the rider an upright position, probably an advantage in traffic, less advantageous in a headwind. The Ute has a front disc brake and rear V-brake. It's geared low by road bike standards, but not quite as low as most mountain bikes. It has an 8-speed rear cassette with 11- to 32-tooth cogs, and up front the crankset has a 26- and a 36-tooth chainring. With those gear options, I won't be going fast on this one. But it's not about speed. The Ute comes with big 29" wheels and wide 47mm road tires for a smooth ride on rough roads. The frame and fork have plenty of clearance for at least 2.5-inch tires. I also picked up some 2.1-inch studded winter tires for it, but I'm hoping I won't have to put them on until next winter. This warm weekend has me feeling optimistic, but the weather god might have her own plan.
I was looking for a bicycle that would facilitate daily transportation to and from work, coupled with frequent trips to the grocery and hardware store. I've had great success riding to work on my Soma Double Cross, but I've always wished I had a little more capacity for carrying groceries or other miscellaneous stuff in addition to my usual cargo of laptop computer, stack of books and papers, lunch, work clothes, and small assortment of bicycle tools.
The Kona Ute's wheelbase is about 10 inches longer than that of my Soma Double Cross, perhaps 11 or 12 inches longer than a typical road bike. That's still much shorter than a tandem bicycle, which has wheelbase around 28 inches longer than an ordinary bicycle. The Ute's extra length is in the rear of the frame between the seatpost and the rear axle, where the frame is formed into an integrated rack with a 33-inch long wooden deck. This effectively allows the Ute to carry the equivalent of two additional panniers on the frame. One drawback that I will mention is that the hooks on most standard panniers are too small to grasp the fat tubes the form the Ute's rack, but I'm sure that fat tubes are necessary for strength.
The Kona Ute comes with a single, gigantic, orange bag, sized to readily accommodate two standard grocery bags. The bag is made of a waterproof material, but has a pretty open design. Any precious cargo in the bags, such as a laptop computer, will need have it's own water-resistant container. If this bag proves useful, I may get another. I might also consider attaching a big wire basket about the size of the orange Ute bag, or mount a horizontal rail on the frame that will allow me to use my Ortlieb panniers on one side.
An everyday bike should be as user-friendly as possible. If a bicycle is going to be used for daily transportation, including the last-minute oh-no-we're-out-of-milk trip, it needs to be convenient to simply jump on it and go. That means avoiding the need for special shoes and clothes, and having the necessary lock, lights, and cargo containers sitting on the bike, ready to roll. It needs to be just about as easy as jumping in the mini-van (and it's certain to be more fun). For now, I've mounted some smallish battery-powered lights on the handlebars. It's getting light enough in the morning now that these should suffice, but in the long run I plan to install a tire-driven generator (dynamo) that powers a good headlight and taillight.
Fenders and a kickstand also go a long way towards making a bicycle a useful piece of transportation. The Ute comes with a smallish fender up front, but none in the rear. I opted to install the Planet Bike Cascadia 29er fenders because they're big enough to cover the Ute's huge tires, and because the long rubbery extensions do a great job of keeping spray from reaching feet and the bicycle's bottom bracket, crankset, and chain.
The Ute comes with a two-legged kickstand, which looks nice and seems to function really well. I can see that it's difficult to design a two-legged center-mounted kickstand. If the kickstand is narrow enough to stay inside the chain when up, it's not wide enough to support the bike when down. If the kickstand is wide enough to support the bike, then it needs to stay under the chain when it folds up, in which case the pivot point has to hang a few inches below the bottom bracket. Balancing the width, potential for chain contact, and distance the thing hangs down, makes for tight constraints on design. We'll see how it works.
The first thing I noticed when riding the Ute is that it's tall. It's big wheels, and high bottom bracket, along with the upright position, make me feel like I'm really up in the sky. This might be a drawback for a utility bike, but since the load will be carried low alongside the wheels, I think it will be fine. The swept-back bars are comfortable; they're as wide as most mountain bike bars, but swept-back handles give them an unusual feel. It came with a very short handlebar stem, which I traded for a longer one since I'm fairly tall and the reach felt pretty short with the stubby stem.
This morning I took it to the grocery store for coffee and milk. With the long wheelbase and fat street tires, the ride was smooth and comfortable. The upright position was nice for navigating through the grocery store parking lot. The big front wheel was too tall to squeeze into the crappy rack at the grocery store; I used the kickstand to stand the Ute beside the rack. The big orange pannier held the jug of milk just fine. The ride was unaffected by a single jug of milk on one side of the bike. Later in the day, after some neighborhood cruising with the kids on their bikes, I made another trip to the store for chips and salsa. No problem with that load either, except that now it's in my belly.
Tomorrow I'll ride my Kona Ute to work!
06 August 2008
More of the same
Same intersection. Same red light. Different Cyclist. This morning on my way to work the bicyclist that ran the red light was older and wearing a helmet. Riding a noisy old black mountain bike and wearing a backpack. I think I've seen this guy before, and he may even be the guy I spoke to once. He rolls up to the intersection in the right turn line. Stops at the red light to wait for a break in the traffic, then rides across five lanes. The light still red. I use the non-turning lane, wait in line with traffic for the green light, then cross and move the to the right side side as I finish crossing.
Does anybody care but me? Probably not. Why do I care? I want drivers of cars to respect me as user of the roadway with equal rights and equal responsibilities. Can they tell the difference between me and the guy that ran the light? Probably not. Certainly not once we're both out of the intersection and riding along in the bicycle lane.
Is there something I can do that will make a difference?
Does anybody care but me? Probably not. Why do I care? I want drivers of cars to respect me as user of the roadway with equal rights and equal responsibilities. Can they tell the difference between me and the guy that ran the light? Probably not. Certainly not once we're both out of the intersection and riding along in the bicycle lane.
Is there something I can do that will make a difference?
04 August 2008
August already?
I'm still working my way through the write-ups on the MUP tour. I'll keep adding them with dates in July. You can find them by clicking on the links along the right. My goal is to finish up one a day, but I'm a little behind.
I had to throw in a current post, though. This sort of follows with some of the bicycle-car interaction posts and comments passed. Tonight on my ride home I had close call - only not with a car, but with another bicyclist. Preparing to cross my favorite busy intersection at Okemos and Kinawa Roads, I was eastbound, and stopped in the right lane waiting on a red light. A short line of cars was building behind me. Across the road and to my right, there was a youngish woman on bicycle. Picture a not-so-athletic looking high school age girl on an old beat-up mountain bike with no helmet and no smile. She was northbound on the sidewalk across the road, and approaching the intersection. As my light turned green and I started across the road, it appeared that she was slowing as she approached the intersection. I didn't think too much about it, but assumed she would stop since she had a red light and there were quite a few cars around. However, just when I thought she would stop, she didn't. Instead, she pedaled. I don't think she ever looked my way - she just rolled into the road. I hit my brakes pretty hard and swerved to my right, passing just behind her rear wheel. I don't think she ever saw me. The cars behind me just slowed and waited for for her to cross the road in front them. I don't know if she saw them either. Maybe she just didn't care.
I'm concerned that there are so many people out there on bikes who pay no attention to traffic laws. And, actually, it's not necessarily just disregard for traffic laws - it's a lack of common sense. I suspect it's never occurred to them that they are supposed follow some sort of guidelines for the use of their bicycle on public roads and sidewalks. Lots of people go to driver education training. Perhaps we need to have some sort of formal training - or semi-formal training - in the use of bicycles. Maybe it could occur in elementary schools. I'm not advocating licenses for the operation of bicycles, but maybe some sort of short-course for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Parents could come, too. Or maybe it's just hopeless.
If you're at an intersection and the light is red, and the "Don't Walk" sign is lit, and there are cars coming from your right and your left, don't cross the road...
I had to throw in a current post, though. This sort of follows with some of the bicycle-car interaction posts and comments passed. Tonight on my ride home I had close call - only not with a car, but with another bicyclist. Preparing to cross my favorite busy intersection at Okemos and Kinawa Roads, I was eastbound, and stopped in the right lane waiting on a red light. A short line of cars was building behind me. Across the road and to my right, there was a youngish woman on bicycle. Picture a not-so-athletic looking high school age girl on an old beat-up mountain bike with no helmet and no smile. She was northbound on the sidewalk across the road, and approaching the intersection. As my light turned green and I started across the road, it appeared that she was slowing as she approached the intersection. I didn't think too much about it, but assumed she would stop since she had a red light and there were quite a few cars around. However, just when I thought she would stop, she didn't. Instead, she pedaled. I don't think she ever looked my way - she just rolled into the road. I hit my brakes pretty hard and swerved to my right, passing just behind her rear wheel. I don't think she ever saw me. The cars behind me just slowed and waited for for her to cross the road in front them. I don't know if she saw them either. Maybe she just didn't care.
I'm concerned that there are so many people out there on bikes who pay no attention to traffic laws. And, actually, it's not necessarily just disregard for traffic laws - it's a lack of common sense. I suspect it's never occurred to them that they are supposed follow some sort of guidelines for the use of their bicycle on public roads and sidewalks. Lots of people go to driver education training. Perhaps we need to have some sort of formal training - or semi-formal training - in the use of bicycles. Maybe it could occur in elementary schools. I'm not advocating licenses for the operation of bicycles, but maybe some sort of short-course for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Parents could come, too. Or maybe it's just hopeless.
If you're at an intersection and the light is red, and the "Don't Walk" sign is lit, and there are cars coming from your right and your left, don't cross the road...
15 April 2008
Road Rage
Most of the time my ride to work is pleasant and relaxing. A little exercise in the morning makes sitting at my desk a little more tolerable.
Last night I sent out an email to some key folks in my company to request that, as part of their new sustainability initiative, they consider providing incentives to employees to reduce commuter trips. I suggested that providing facilities for bicycle parking - racks and even covered parking - would be a great benefit to those of us who ride to work and would help encourage others to do this. Some companies actually do this.
This morning at home things seemed a little stressful. Maybe some stress from work creeping into my morning routine. Maybe just the usual rush to get everyone ready and out the door on time. No big deal.
I'm riding my mountain bike to work right now, pulling my stuff in our Burley trailer. This will enable me to keep riding to work while I give a full post-winter cleaning to my usual commuter bike (which just turned over 5,000 miles).
As I was heading west down the Hatch street bottleneck, where my whole giant neighborhood and all the shortcutters from the highway funnel into Dobie Road, toward the "T" intersection where the road splits into a left and right turn lane, I could see in my rearview a fast-moving luxury SUV way out in the left lane racing to go around me. But I was moving pretty fast down the hill, probably around 25 mph, and at our current respective paces, there was not going to be time for him to get around me before we reached the intersection. Given that he was still a hundred feet behind me, and the left turn line was fast approaching, I gave a big left-arm turn signal and moved out into the lane, and then merged into the left-turn lane. The driver moved back into his own lane and merged into the right-turn lane. As he passed me he opened his window and slowed. He was well-dressed in respectable suit and tie, and said, "Hey buddy, they have sidewalks." His window was on the way up by the time he'd finished speaking. He was not interested in my reply.
On the sidewalk to my right there was a woman walking a dog. Crossing the street in front of me (where the "WALK" light comes on a the same time as the left-turn arrow and someone is surely going to get killed) were two kids with backpacks, walking their bikes across the street. A jogger was on the sidewalk across the street. The sidewalks are well-used. A fast-moving bicycle belongs on the road.
To the man in the luxury SUV, I should have said, "Same Roads, Same Rights, Same Rules, sir." Or maybe, "It's my road, too." I should not have said what I did say, and very loudly, which I won't write here because I sort of regret my choice of words, and I want my kids to be able to read this. Oh well, it was just two short words.
Maybe I'll put a sticky note on my handlebars with well-considered and polite replies to rude remarks from motorists. I find that I handle rude or inappropriate comments from motorists better in low-traffic situations than I do at busy intersections. It must have something to do with heightened defense mechanisms that are in place in stressful situations.
And there's more...
About a mile later, still steaming from my previous encounter, I gradually caught up with my red-light-running bicycle commuter friend. I've seen this guy before, maybe even written about him. He pulls out into traffic and runs the light at the intersection of Okemos and Bennett/Kiniwa Roads right in the middle of rush-hour traffic. And it's a big busy intersection. I saw him do it again today. He's tall, has grey hair, rides an older mountain bike, which is black, and wears a backpack. He pulls out of the fairly upscale Briarwood neighborhood and into the bike lane on Kinawa. Today he was about 100 yards ahead of me. He wiggled between the lines of traffic at the intersection and road straight across it when the light was red. The left-turn lane arrows were green, and with all the traffic I couldn't tell whether he was forcing cars to wait on him or not. He just went straight through on the red.
HOW ARE BICYCLISTS SUPPOSED EXPECT MOTORISTS TO TREAT US WITH RESPECT WHEN IDIOTS DO STUPID STUFF LIKE THIS?? SAME ROAD, SAME RIGHTS, SAME RULES!!
The light turned green, I went through the intersection with the traffic. Legally and safely. I soon caught up with offending idiot. I should have run him off the road and beaten him senseless. Or maybe I should have pushed him out into traffic. Or maybe I should have ridden up beside him and said, "Hey buddy, they have sidewalks." Or maybe I should have said, "Excuse me, sir, I think it's great that you're choosing to ride a bicycle to work, but it's really important that you obey the rules of the road."
I failed. I did none of the above, which is just as well for most of those options. I caught up with him, but there was not room for me to ride beside him. I really wanted to talk to him. I shouted, "Good morning!" Even though my shadow had overlapped his way out in front of him, I think my voice nearly caused him to fall off his bike. He looked over his shoulder at me and said something unintelligible. At that point, I decided that he might actually be mentally challenged. I gave up on speaking to him. It should have been clear from his bicycling behavior that he was a few cards short of a full deck, as they say. But now I wonder, does this guy bicycle because he doesn't have the mental capacity to drive a car? Should he be on the road at all?
I pulled into the traffic lane as I approached the round-about at Bennett and Hulett. I find it's safer to take up the full lane as I approach the round-about rather than try to sort things out with the cars as the road narrows and enters the circle. I signaled a right turn and headed north. The road-hazard-rider continued west.
At work, I had a response form the coordinator of the sustainability initiative, asking that post my note about bicycle facilities to the corporate sustainability web page.
All I know is I don't know.
Last night I sent out an email to some key folks in my company to request that, as part of their new sustainability initiative, they consider providing incentives to employees to reduce commuter trips. I suggested that providing facilities for bicycle parking - racks and even covered parking - would be a great benefit to those of us who ride to work and would help encourage others to do this. Some companies actually do this.
This morning at home things seemed a little stressful. Maybe some stress from work creeping into my morning routine. Maybe just the usual rush to get everyone ready and out the door on time. No big deal.
I'm riding my mountain bike to work right now, pulling my stuff in our Burley trailer. This will enable me to keep riding to work while I give a full post-winter cleaning to my usual commuter bike (which just turned over 5,000 miles).
As I was heading west down the Hatch street bottleneck, where my whole giant neighborhood and all the shortcutters from the highway funnel into Dobie Road, toward the "T" intersection where the road splits into a left and right turn lane, I could see in my rearview a fast-moving luxury SUV way out in the left lane racing to go around me. But I was moving pretty fast down the hill, probably around 25 mph, and at our current respective paces, there was not going to be time for him to get around me before we reached the intersection. Given that he was still a hundred feet behind me, and the left turn line was fast approaching, I gave a big left-arm turn signal and moved out into the lane, and then merged into the left-turn lane. The driver moved back into his own lane and merged into the right-turn lane. As he passed me he opened his window and slowed. He was well-dressed in respectable suit and tie, and said, "Hey buddy, they have sidewalks." His window was on the way up by the time he'd finished speaking. He was not interested in my reply.
On the sidewalk to my right there was a woman walking a dog. Crossing the street in front of me (where the "WALK" light comes on a the same time as the left-turn arrow and someone is surely going to get killed) were two kids with backpacks, walking their bikes across the street. A jogger was on the sidewalk across the street. The sidewalks are well-used. A fast-moving bicycle belongs on the road.
To the man in the luxury SUV, I should have said, "Same Roads, Same Rights, Same Rules, sir." Or maybe, "It's my road, too." I should not have said what I did say, and very loudly, which I won't write here because I sort of regret my choice of words, and I want my kids to be able to read this. Oh well, it was just two short words.
Maybe I'll put a sticky note on my handlebars with well-considered and polite replies to rude remarks from motorists. I find that I handle rude or inappropriate comments from motorists better in low-traffic situations than I do at busy intersections. It must have something to do with heightened defense mechanisms that are in place in stressful situations.
And there's more...
About a mile later, still steaming from my previous encounter, I gradually caught up with my red-light-running bicycle commuter friend. I've seen this guy before, maybe even written about him. He pulls out into traffic and runs the light at the intersection of Okemos and Bennett/Kiniwa Roads right in the middle of rush-hour traffic. And it's a big busy intersection. I saw him do it again today. He's tall, has grey hair, rides an older mountain bike, which is black, and wears a backpack. He pulls out of the fairly upscale Briarwood neighborhood and into the bike lane on Kinawa. Today he was about 100 yards ahead of me. He wiggled between the lines of traffic at the intersection and road straight across it when the light was red. The left-turn lane arrows were green, and with all the traffic I couldn't tell whether he was forcing cars to wait on him or not. He just went straight through on the red.
HOW ARE BICYCLISTS SUPPOSED EXPECT MOTORISTS TO TREAT US WITH RESPECT WHEN IDIOTS DO STUPID STUFF LIKE THIS?? SAME ROAD, SAME RIGHTS, SAME RULES!!
The light turned green, I went through the intersection with the traffic. Legally and safely. I soon caught up with offending idiot. I should have run him off the road and beaten him senseless. Or maybe I should have pushed him out into traffic. Or maybe I should have ridden up beside him and said, "Hey buddy, they have sidewalks." Or maybe I should have said, "Excuse me, sir, I think it's great that you're choosing to ride a bicycle to work, but it's really important that you obey the rules of the road."
I failed. I did none of the above, which is just as well for most of those options. I caught up with him, but there was not room for me to ride beside him. I really wanted to talk to him. I shouted, "Good morning!" Even though my shadow had overlapped his way out in front of him, I think my voice nearly caused him to fall off his bike. He looked over his shoulder at me and said something unintelligible. At that point, I decided that he might actually be mentally challenged. I gave up on speaking to him. It should have been clear from his bicycling behavior that he was a few cards short of a full deck, as they say. But now I wonder, does this guy bicycle because he doesn't have the mental capacity to drive a car? Should he be on the road at all?
I pulled into the traffic lane as I approached the round-about at Bennett and Hulett. I find it's safer to take up the full lane as I approach the round-about rather than try to sort things out with the cars as the road narrows and enters the circle. I signaled a right turn and headed north. The road-hazard-rider continued west.
At work, I had a response form the coordinator of the sustainability initiative, asking that post my note about bicycle facilities to the corporate sustainability web page.
All I know is I don't know.
16 March 2008
Spring?
It might be here, finally. The temperature on Friday rose into the 50s F for the first time this year. I left work before dark to pull the tandems off the wall so we could take a spin around the neighborhood. The tandems are so smooth and quiet, especially in comparison to my commuting bike with it's studded tires. Since, Quinn had a cold and had been running a fever, we didn't ride much. His fever hung around off and on for the rest of the weekend, so we didn't do any more tandem rides. As the temperature was around 40 F Saturday and Sunday, riding wouldn't have been quite as nice, either.
We're trying to make it possible for Cindy and Quinn to pedal to Quinn's school this spring rather than driving the van. They used the Rodriguez tandem for their commute in fall 2006 and spring 2007, but when we got the blue Burleys we moved Quinn's child stoker kit from he Rodriguez to the new Burley, and Quinn could no longer ride the Rodriguez. But we've still got the old Burley Piccolo, which is a pedal trailer that attaches to the back of an adult bike. We set up Cindy's old mountain/commuter bike to accept the Piccolo, and now she and Quinn can ride together. We took the Scott/Piccolo system out for a short test run this afternoon, and it looks like it will work pretty well. Surprisingly, Quinn is just barely big enough for the pedal trailer.
Since the last time I posted here, we've been busy:
We replaced the dead garage door opener after more than a year of doing without.
Abbey played the piano in a recital at her piano teachers home and in the Michigan Music Teachers Association Student Achievement Test at MSU. She did a great job on the test, scoring a 97.75%. Her teacher, Mrs. Black, was tickled pink!
Cindy started her job at Playmakers, a really nice independent running and athletic gear store. It seems like it will be a great job - with great discounts on shoes and clothes. They're the largest Smart Wool dealer in North America. Must be because it's so cold here.
Quinn's room went from flat white walls with yellow trim to rich blue and red walls with white trim, colors selected from the suit of his favorite superhero.
I've been training for a half marathon trail run scheduled for late April, so I've been out running in the dark on snow and ice a few mornings each week. Cindy and I have both been riding the bike trainer in the basement in preparation for another summer of bicycling.
After taking the bus to work for most of the months of January and February, I've finally starting bicycling to work regularly again. The snow and ice on the roads and sidewalks made it nearly impossible for me to ride to work - even with studded tires. I've complained about this in previous posts. It was just too difficult to traverse some sections of my route without tying up traffic on a busy two lane road (one that I think is a two-lane residential road, but the local drivers think is a two-lane race track). Next year I may try to set up a mountain bike with super fat tires (I'd love to get Surley Pugsley) so that I might be able to ride the ice-packed sidewalk on this stretch of road. We'll see. All the snow from road ends up on the sidewalk, so the snow and ice can easily be a couple feet deep.
We have all sorts of adventures planned for this summer. We just regiestred for the League of Michigan Bicyclists Shoreline Tour on Michigan's Upper Peninsula (the LMB MUP tour). It's a week-long bicycle tour around the eastern perimeter of the UP. It will be a challenge for us, but we like challenges. The kids are really excited, although the current debate revolves around how many Webkinz each kid gets to bring. We'll see how they do on when spring training begins. More on that to come.
We're trying to make it possible for Cindy and Quinn to pedal to Quinn's school this spring rather than driving the van. They used the Rodriguez tandem for their commute in fall 2006 and spring 2007, but when we got the blue Burleys we moved Quinn's child stoker kit from he Rodriguez to the new Burley, and Quinn could no longer ride the Rodriguez. But we've still got the old Burley Piccolo, which is a pedal trailer that attaches to the back of an adult bike. We set up Cindy's old mountain/commuter bike to accept the Piccolo, and now she and Quinn can ride together. We took the Scott/Piccolo system out for a short test run this afternoon, and it looks like it will work pretty well. Surprisingly, Quinn is just barely big enough for the pedal trailer.
Since the last time I posted here, we've been busy:
We replaced the dead garage door opener after more than a year of doing without.
Abbey played the piano in a recital at her piano teachers home and in the Michigan Music Teachers Association Student Achievement Test at MSU. She did a great job on the test, scoring a 97.75%. Her teacher, Mrs. Black, was tickled pink!
Cindy started her job at Playmakers, a really nice independent running and athletic gear store. It seems like it will be a great job - with great discounts on shoes and clothes. They're the largest Smart Wool dealer in North America. Must be because it's so cold here.
Quinn's room went from flat white walls with yellow trim to rich blue and red walls with white trim, colors selected from the suit of his favorite superhero.
I've been training for a half marathon trail run scheduled for late April, so I've been out running in the dark on snow and ice a few mornings each week. Cindy and I have both been riding the bike trainer in the basement in preparation for another summer of bicycling.
After taking the bus to work for most of the months of January and February, I've finally starting bicycling to work regularly again. The snow and ice on the roads and sidewalks made it nearly impossible for me to ride to work - even with studded tires. I've complained about this in previous posts. It was just too difficult to traverse some sections of my route without tying up traffic on a busy two lane road (one that I think is a two-lane residential road, but the local drivers think is a two-lane race track). Next year I may try to set up a mountain bike with super fat tires (I'd love to get Surley Pugsley) so that I might be able to ride the ice-packed sidewalk on this stretch of road. We'll see. All the snow from road ends up on the sidewalk, so the snow and ice can easily be a couple feet deep.
We have all sorts of adventures planned for this summer. We just regiestred for the League of Michigan Bicyclists Shoreline Tour on Michigan's Upper Peninsula (the LMB MUP tour). It's a week-long bicycle tour around the eastern perimeter of the UP. It will be a challenge for us, but we like challenges. The kids are really excited, although the current debate revolves around how many Webkinz each kid gets to bring. We'll see how they do on when spring training begins. More on that to come.
13 December 2007
Bicycling
Back on the bike today. Yesterday, too. At least for the ride in. Just taking it slow and easy along the icy path along Dobie. At 30 F today, with mostly dry roads, it was a nice ride in. I was too stressed and tired after work yesterday to ride home - I called and had Cindy come get me. So much for my low emission commute.
Lots of traffic near the high school at 7:30 but the bike lane helps. Is it not legal for high school students to bicycle to work? Or just not socially acceptable? This should change. Maybe high schools should have cycling teams.
Lots of traffic near the high school at 7:30 but the bike lane helps. Is it not legal for high school students to bicycle to work? Or just not socially acceptable? This should change. Maybe high schools should have cycling teams.
10 December 2007
Walking
Today I walked to work again. This time I took the southern route instead of the northern route. I left at 7:15 and arrived at 8:03. Check the last post, but I think that's the same time it took on Friday. We live almost straight east of my office, but there's a river in between, so the only routes are those with bridges. Walking this route was much more pleasant that the other.
It was hardly even below freezing today - maybe 30 F. Just a little new snow. I probably could have bicycled pretty easily. Maybe I'll try that tomorrow. Even the sidewalk on Dobie seemed traversable. Maybe I should resign myself to riding the sidewalk at a near-walk pace, just to see if I can do it.
I got a ride home from Cindy this evening because we needed to get Abbey to her piano lesson.
I'm anxious for spring to get here so we can back to tandeming. I'm thinking about randonneuring again, too, but it's not a very realistic goal for me right now. Maybe in a few years.
It was hardly even below freezing today - maybe 30 F. Just a little new snow. I probably could have bicycled pretty easily. Maybe I'll try that tomorrow. Even the sidewalk on Dobie seemed traversable. Maybe I should resign myself to riding the sidewalk at a near-walk pace, just to see if I can do it.
I got a ride home from Cindy this evening because we needed to get Abbey to her piano lesson.
I'm anxious for spring to get here so we can back to tandeming. I'm thinking about randonneuring again, too, but it's not a very realistic goal for me right now. Maybe in a few years.
04 December 2007
Cold and dark winter commute
Winter has arrived and bicycling to work means riding in the cold and dark in the morning and in the evening.
Yesterday morning the wind was blowing with gusts up to 40 mph from the NW. My four mile route to work is indirect; I ride south then west then east then north. Mostly. Riding west into the strong wind made slow going. Riding south the gusts blew me sideways. For warmth, I wore my snug Icebreaker wool top under a close-fitting Gore cycling jacket. On top of that I wore my fleece-lined nylon jacket. On my lower half, I wore cycling shorts under mid weight tights. Neoprene booties over my cycling shoes and PI lobster mitts under Gore-Tex shell mitts - ancient ones from Cindy's days at Outdoor Research. I have a thin balaclava that works under my helmet. It keeps my ears warm through the 20s F but below that another layer is required. Well, yesterday, despite the wind, the temperature was above 30 F. I thought it was colder when I was getting ready to ride. I hadn't checked the temperature. I was plenty warm.
On my way to work, traffic was backed up, I assumed as a result of icy roads. Usually, when traffic is slow and the roads are icy, I just get in line and crawl along with the cars. With the cold wind, however, I decided to take advantage of the wide shoulder to get ahead. Turned out the traffic was piling up because a tree had blown down in front of a car and the car had run into it. A girl on her way to the high school, I think. To get past the wreck, I had to dismount and drag my bike over the trunk. It was not a small tree.
After work, on the way home, the air temperature was around 30 F. The wind was still blowing but was generally favorable to my ride home. I stuffed my jacket into my panniers to avoid overheating, as I had in the morning. Then I spent too much time unlocking my bike and packing my panniers outside with my mittens off, so my fingers were cold before I started riding. Aside from cold fingers that never warmed, the ride home was nice.
Today, in the morning, I checked the temperature before I left. It was 23 F but the wind was not blowing as hard as it had been yesterday morning. I traded yesterday's fleece-lined jacket for a light nylon shell as my outer layer. I was quite comfortable.
There's been some snow and some sleet, so the roads have patches of ice but are mostly dry. The short stretch of sidewalk I use along Dobie Road will soon be, as it was last winter, unrideable. The snow accumulates on the sidewalk as slush, it holds footprints and tire tracks, then freezes. It becomes so rough and hard that riding on it becomes very difficult because the bumps, footprints and tire tracks, force the bicycle's front wheel to turn unpredictably. Even the studded tires don't really help. Soon I'll be riding the road. That stretch of road is so rough and narrow and carries so much traffic in the morning that I usually avoid riding it. When I do decide to ride in the road, traffic gets backed up. Motorists don't like to wait for space to go around me - some get angry and some will pound their horn, other race their engines as they pass. Some wait politely for a clear spot to pass me. Most just ride past me with about 3 inches to spare, as if I weren't even there. It can be stressful. The adjacent sidewalk is wide and runs along a natural area, Dobie Preserve, so there are no driveways crossing the path, which is the biggest hazard to bicycles forced onto the sidewalk. I think this path is very safe, except for a slight risk of crashing into pedestrians wearing headphones or walking dogs, or both, and weaving side to side on the path. But once the snow and ice cover the sidewalk, I'll be on the street.
This evening, my ride home was again cold and dark, but quite pleasant. As usual, I didn't get out of the office until 5:45, so much of the after work traffic had subsided. The wind wasn't strong, and the temperature was around 25 F. When I reached Dobie, I chose to ride the road instead of the sidewalk. The traffic is lighter at this time of day, so riding on the road is generally better. And because the sidewalk is only on the west side of the road, riding to the north on the sidewalk means riding into oncoming headlights. It's very difficult to see the sidewalk. The road seems safer. Tonight the cars were patient, too.
Yesterday morning the wind was blowing with gusts up to 40 mph from the NW. My four mile route to work is indirect; I ride south then west then east then north. Mostly. Riding west into the strong wind made slow going. Riding south the gusts blew me sideways. For warmth, I wore my snug Icebreaker wool top under a close-fitting Gore cycling jacket. On top of that I wore my fleece-lined nylon jacket. On my lower half, I wore cycling shorts under mid weight tights. Neoprene booties over my cycling shoes and PI lobster mitts under Gore-Tex shell mitts - ancient ones from Cindy's days at Outdoor Research. I have a thin balaclava that works under my helmet. It keeps my ears warm through the 20s F but below that another layer is required. Well, yesterday, despite the wind, the temperature was above 30 F. I thought it was colder when I was getting ready to ride. I hadn't checked the temperature. I was plenty warm.
On my way to work, traffic was backed up, I assumed as a result of icy roads. Usually, when traffic is slow and the roads are icy, I just get in line and crawl along with the cars. With the cold wind, however, I decided to take advantage of the wide shoulder to get ahead. Turned out the traffic was piling up because a tree had blown down in front of a car and the car had run into it. A girl on her way to the high school, I think. To get past the wreck, I had to dismount and drag my bike over the trunk. It was not a small tree.
After work, on the way home, the air temperature was around 30 F. The wind was still blowing but was generally favorable to my ride home. I stuffed my jacket into my panniers to avoid overheating, as I had in the morning. Then I spent too much time unlocking my bike and packing my panniers outside with my mittens off, so my fingers were cold before I started riding. Aside from cold fingers that never warmed, the ride home was nice.
Today, in the morning, I checked the temperature before I left. It was 23 F but the wind was not blowing as hard as it had been yesterday morning. I traded yesterday's fleece-lined jacket for a light nylon shell as my outer layer. I was quite comfortable.
There's been some snow and some sleet, so the roads have patches of ice but are mostly dry. The short stretch of sidewalk I use along Dobie Road will soon be, as it was last winter, unrideable. The snow accumulates on the sidewalk as slush, it holds footprints and tire tracks, then freezes. It becomes so rough and hard that riding on it becomes very difficult because the bumps, footprints and tire tracks, force the bicycle's front wheel to turn unpredictably. Even the studded tires don't really help. Soon I'll be riding the road. That stretch of road is so rough and narrow and carries so much traffic in the morning that I usually avoid riding it. When I do decide to ride in the road, traffic gets backed up. Motorists don't like to wait for space to go around me - some get angry and some will pound their horn, other race their engines as they pass. Some wait politely for a clear spot to pass me. Most just ride past me with about 3 inches to spare, as if I weren't even there. It can be stressful. The adjacent sidewalk is wide and runs along a natural area, Dobie Preserve, so there are no driveways crossing the path, which is the biggest hazard to bicycles forced onto the sidewalk. I think this path is very safe, except for a slight risk of crashing into pedestrians wearing headphones or walking dogs, or both, and weaving side to side on the path. But once the snow and ice cover the sidewalk, I'll be on the street.
This evening, my ride home was again cold and dark, but quite pleasant. As usual, I didn't get out of the office until 5:45, so much of the after work traffic had subsided. The wind wasn't strong, and the temperature was around 25 F. When I reached Dobie, I chose to ride the road instead of the sidewalk. The traffic is lighter at this time of day, so riding on the road is generally better. And because the sidewalk is only on the west side of the road, riding to the north on the sidewalk means riding into oncoming headlights. It's very difficult to see the sidewalk. The road seems safer. Tonight the cars were patient, too.
01 October 2007
My Daily Ride - The Soma DoubleCross
I've been thinking it would be fun to put up some pictures of some of our bikes - something other than the tandems, that is. In this post I've featured what I ride to work just about every day. We got it back in Seattle when I decided it would make more sense to have a good bicycle than the old Honda Civic Wagon. I'm really happy with my Soma. Rarely do I miss the Honda.
Soma is a small San Francisco company that makes steel bicycles frames. Check them out here. Really, they design the frames and have them built in Taiwan. They discuss this arrangement on their web site. If they didn't do it that way, I wouldn't have been able to afford one. From Soma, generally you just buy a frame and fork and build the bike yourself, or have someone put it together for you. I had Larry at Perfect Wheels build this one.
It was built as a touring, commuting, trailer-hauling machine. The DoubleCross frame is designed as a cyclocross frame, and it's great for a commuter, too. It has clearance for reasonably fat tires and fenders and it has plenty of lugs for attaching racks and fenders. Mine is set up with a triple crankset - it has three chain rings up front - and the gearing falls somewhere between a the low gearing of mountain bike and the high gearing of road bike. This one is 48-38-26. It works quite well.
I took this picture earlier this fall. You can sort of see my funky front fender and my dual headlights.
Soma is a small San Francisco company that makes steel bicycles frames. Check them out here. Really, they design the frames and have them built in Taiwan. They discuss this arrangement on their web site. If they didn't do it that way, I wouldn't have been able to afford one. From Soma, generally you just buy a frame and fork and build the bike yourself, or have someone put it together for you. I had Larry at Perfect Wheels build this one.
It was built as a touring, commuting, trailer-hauling machine. The DoubleCross frame is designed as a cyclocross frame, and it's great for a commuter, too. It has clearance for reasonably fat tires and fenders and it has plenty of lugs for attaching racks and fenders. Mine is set up with a triple crankset - it has three chain rings up front - and the gearing falls somewhere between a the low gearing of mountain bike and the high gearing of road bike. This one is 48-38-26. It works quite well.
I took this picture earlier this fall. You can sort of see my funky front fender and my dual headlights.
The fender I originally installed was a Planet Bike Freddy Fender. It worked quite well but I cut off the front of it just past the front brake so it would work better when I put in on the Seattle city bus racks. Later, in Michigan, when I installed headlight on the fork crown, the lack of fender at the top of the wheel meant I got crud all over my light. So I had this old plastic mountain fender that I attached to the upper front to extend it. The unexpected benefit was that it not only protects the light from road grime, but it stiffened the front fender and eliminated vibration that used occur on bumps. I've also added a white plastic flap to the rear of the front fender. This keeps snow from building up on the bottom bracket, and keeps my feet dry. It may look funky, but it's very functional.
The picture above was taken last winter after I got home from work one evening. The fork crown headlight is run by my a tire-driven generator. It's the least expensive dynamo unit from Busch&Müller. It uses a 6 volt 2.4 watt halogen bulb, and it puts out plenty of light for riding on dark roads at 15 to 20 miles per hour, even when there's oncoming gasoline-powered traffic using headlights. Check out Peter White Cycles to learn about these and lots of other cool, practical bicycling stuff. I'd like to get a hub generator, but for now this was all I could afford, and even then only because I happened across a highly discounted generator and light. The light on the handlebar is small LED battery light. I use it in the blinking mode most of the time just to help cars see me. I often use it when it's not really dark out, and I just want something to help call attention to me in dim light.
Pedals - Last year in the snow I road in my hiking boots, so I used Power Grips instead of clipless pedals. This year I'll try neoprene booties over my biking shoes and keep the clipless pedals installed.
The picture above shows my winter tires. Gotta love those carbide tipped studs. They work extremely well on slushy roads and solid ice. On the front I have Nokian Hakkapeliitta and the rear is a Kenda Klondike. I'd planned to get two Nokians, but there was only one available so I installed the Kenda on the rear.
The tail light on the rack is also powered by the generator. It's an LED light only. Both the headlight and taillight have stand lights, meaning they have a capacitor that stores some charge so that they stay on for a few minutes when the bike stops moving. The rack on the back is a super-hefty steel Burley rack that came with the Piccolo trailer. It weighs a ton, but I'm sure it will never, ever break.
The picture below is like a baby picture. It was taken in the back yard of the old rental house in Seattle when the Soma was brand new.
On my way home from work last night the Soma's odomoter had just reached 4600 miles. I'm very happy with it. I just hope the salty winter Michigan roads don't shorten the life of the frame.
30 May 2007
Lucinda Means Advocacy Day
Today Cindy and I participated in the League of Michigan Bicyclists annual bicycling advocacy ride and parade. Check it out here. This was the third year of the event commemorating Lucinda Means, the Executive Director of the LMB from 1997 to 2005. Her passing in 2005 is clearly considered a great loss to the Michigan bicycling community. She was said to be a tireless advocate of all forms of bicycling in Michigan, and her efforts with LMB made a tremendous difference to bicyclist in this automobile-centered state. Obviously, Cindy and I didn't arrive in Michigan soon enough to meet her.
The ride started in the morning at MSU Bikes, an important center for local bicycling and bicycle commuting activities. It's a new and, I think, still developing bike shop on the MSU campus, with a focus on rebuilding and restoring used bikes for use as every day commuters. You can bring your bike in and they'll help you repair it yourself, too.
The ride started in the morning with 20-mile ride through the rural roads south of MSU and into the areas south of Lansing where we often ride on our weekend ice cream runs. After the fun ride, there was an organized parade from MSU to the Capitol Building in Lansing, where we had lunch under a tent on the Capitol Grounds. Following lunch and a couple of short speaches and some instructions, we divided into about 10 teams and headed off to deliver LMB materials to the Legislators' offices. It was like nothing we'd done before.
To participate in the event, I took a day of vacation and we left Quinn in pre-school for a full day. We pulled the child stoker kit off the big blue Burley, and set it up so Cindy could ride in the stoker position. This was actually pretty easy. Within half an hour Tuesday night we had the bike ready for Cindy. Quinn didn't seem to mind. Aside from a couple of short test rides, it was really the first time Cindy and I had ever gotten out for a tandem ride together as captain and stoker on the same machine. In order to be sure we made the most of the opportunity, we logged more than 50 miles today on the big blue Burley.
It took me a few days to come back and add the photos from this day. We've been busy.
Cindy snapped this tractor shot on our speedy 20-mile tour south of East Lansing. This is Michigan. One thing we learned riding together is that having two adults on one bike doesn't make us any more likely to stay on course. In this short ride, we took two wrong turns, despite painted route markers on the road and a map in my jersey pocket. I think we just felt so care-free, out cranking along by ourselves, that we just forgot to think about following the route. We were also riding roads very familiar to us, so we weren't the least bit worried about losing our way.
Another interesting thing we learned was that Cindy is not comfortable with a cadence as fast as I often prefer. When we're captaining separate tandems, and riding at the same pace, I often bug Cindy (I'm sure she appreciates this) to try using a faster cadence. My reasoning is that the faster cadence seems to require less muscle effort and saves leg strength over the course of a long ride. But riding together on the Burley (with captain and stoker crank lengths of 175 and 170 mm) she didn't like my fast cadence at all! I suspect it has to do with the relative length our legs to our crank lengths. This is what I've read, and perhaps it's true. Imagine how Quinn must feel when he's back there. His cranks are shorter than the adult cranks, I think they're 125 mm, but his legs are much, much shorter than our legs. If it were an option (it's not) I'd like to try 160 mm cranks on Cindy's bike. I should measure the effective crank length on Abbey's shortened-cranks. Enough of this cranky discussion for now. Back to the ride...
After the ride, we had to wait for a while before the parade begain. We hung around at the MSU Bikes shop along the path by the river. The canoe rental has been around longer than the bike shop. That's our Burley tandem in the rack. Right in front of it is the big League of Michigan Bicyclists billboard trailer that led the Parage. "Same Roads. Same Rights. Same Rules."
Here's another nice picture of the back of my head. It's good that Cindy was taking pictures, because if it had been Quinn back there, instead of my head, the pictures would probably have focused on my butt. The ride started out on the Lansing River Trail, which is a pretty old trail that follows the river through East Lansing, through some of Lansing's industrial areas, and into downtown. We were supposed to ride two abreast, but at times that was difficult. Much of the time we rode beside the recumbent you can see in the picture above.
There were about 85 cyclists in the ride, and they were a very mixed group on all sorts of different vehicles. There were two Wiz Wheelz trikes, several recumbents, a bunch of old cruisers, new and old mountain, road, and touring bikes. Lots of commuter rigs. The thing that was missing, I think, was the classic fixed-gear or single-speed messenger bike. Lots of law enforcment bicycles from MSU and the cities. The bottom picture above is interesting also because you can see the Capitol Building, our destination, in the background. Note also that Tim, the manager of MSU Bikes, is on top of the concrete barricade taking pictures of the parade.
We had lunch on the Capitol Grounds, and they even had veggie sandwiches for us!
After the event was over, we rode back to MSU on the River Trail. The trail is really interesting because some sections are entirely made of wood, and are built out over the river as they skirt along big, old brick buildings. It's very nice, and some of sections along the river a quite pretty. However, the trail is old, and some of the wood sections are very rough. The asphalt is badly buckled in places, making sharply effective speed bumps on short intervals. It's not a path you can ride at high speed and it made us which we were riding a dual suspension mountain tandem at times.
We had left the Capitol at about 2 p.m. with our mileage at about 40. We'd skipped out on the last scheduled activity for the Event, which was to meet at 3 p.m at the Nuthouse, whatever and wherever that might be, but we needed to get Quinn at pre-school by 3:15 and Abbey at school at 3:30. Since there was road construction near the Capitol, we ended up walking the tandem for about 3 blocks between the Capitol and the River Trail, and our pace on the trail was pretty slow, so it was past 2:30 by the time we reached MSU, and we were still a long way from the pre-school. I had hoped we might have time to stop for a drink and a snack before we got Quinn, but with road construction, traffic and winding roads through the campus, and a stop for a train, we didn't reach Quinn until 3:15. We hooked up the trailer (we'd left it there when we dropped him off in the morning) and pedaled the final miles to Abbey's school. Right on time there, too, and just over 50 miles.
When we got home, we had Abbey take our picture...
The ride started in the morning at MSU Bikes, an important center for local bicycling and bicycle commuting activities. It's a new and, I think, still developing bike shop on the MSU campus, with a focus on rebuilding and restoring used bikes for use as every day commuters. You can bring your bike in and they'll help you repair it yourself, too.
The ride started in the morning with 20-mile ride through the rural roads south of MSU and into the areas south of Lansing where we often ride on our weekend ice cream runs. After the fun ride, there was an organized parade from MSU to the Capitol Building in Lansing, where we had lunch under a tent on the Capitol Grounds. Following lunch and a couple of short speaches and some instructions, we divided into about 10 teams and headed off to deliver LMB materials to the Legislators' offices. It was like nothing we'd done before.
To participate in the event, I took a day of vacation and we left Quinn in pre-school for a full day. We pulled the child stoker kit off the big blue Burley, and set it up so Cindy could ride in the stoker position. This was actually pretty easy. Within half an hour Tuesday night we had the bike ready for Cindy. Quinn didn't seem to mind. Aside from a couple of short test rides, it was really the first time Cindy and I had ever gotten out for a tandem ride together as captain and stoker on the same machine. In order to be sure we made the most of the opportunity, we logged more than 50 miles today on the big blue Burley.
It took me a few days to come back and add the photos from this day. We've been busy.
Cindy snapped this tractor shot on our speedy 20-mile tour south of East Lansing. This is Michigan. One thing we learned riding together is that having two adults on one bike doesn't make us any more likely to stay on course. In this short ride, we took two wrong turns, despite painted route markers on the road and a map in my jersey pocket. I think we just felt so care-free, out cranking along by ourselves, that we just forgot to think about following the route. We were also riding roads very familiar to us, so we weren't the least bit worried about losing our way.
Another interesting thing we learned was that Cindy is not comfortable with a cadence as fast as I often prefer. When we're captaining separate tandems, and riding at the same pace, I often bug Cindy (I'm sure she appreciates this) to try using a faster cadence. My reasoning is that the faster cadence seems to require less muscle effort and saves leg strength over the course of a long ride. But riding together on the Burley (with captain and stoker crank lengths of 175 and 170 mm) she didn't like my fast cadence at all! I suspect it has to do with the relative length our legs to our crank lengths. This is what I've read, and perhaps it's true. Imagine how Quinn must feel when he's back there. His cranks are shorter than the adult cranks, I think they're 125 mm, but his legs are much, much shorter than our legs. If it were an option (it's not) I'd like to try 160 mm cranks on Cindy's bike. I should measure the effective crank length on Abbey's shortened-cranks. Enough of this cranky discussion for now. Back to the ride...
After the ride, we had to wait for a while before the parade begain. We hung around at the MSU Bikes shop along the path by the river. The canoe rental has been around longer than the bike shop. That's our Burley tandem in the rack. Right in front of it is the big League of Michigan Bicyclists billboard trailer that led the Parage. "Same Roads. Same Rights. Same Rules."
Here's another nice picture of the back of my head. It's good that Cindy was taking pictures, because if it had been Quinn back there, instead of my head, the pictures would probably have focused on my butt. The ride started out on the Lansing River Trail, which is a pretty old trail that follows the river through East Lansing, through some of Lansing's industrial areas, and into downtown. We were supposed to ride two abreast, but at times that was difficult. Much of the time we rode beside the recumbent you can see in the picture above.
There were about 85 cyclists in the ride, and they were a very mixed group on all sorts of different vehicles. There were two Wiz Wheelz trikes, several recumbents, a bunch of old cruisers, new and old mountain, road, and touring bikes. Lots of commuter rigs. The thing that was missing, I think, was the classic fixed-gear or single-speed messenger bike. Lots of law enforcment bicycles from MSU and the cities. The bottom picture above is interesting also because you can see the Capitol Building, our destination, in the background. Note also that Tim, the manager of MSU Bikes, is on top of the concrete barricade taking pictures of the parade.
We had lunch on the Capitol Grounds, and they even had veggie sandwiches for us!
After the event was over, we rode back to MSU on the River Trail. The trail is really interesting because some sections are entirely made of wood, and are built out over the river as they skirt along big, old brick buildings. It's very nice, and some of sections along the river a quite pretty. However, the trail is old, and some of the wood sections are very rough. The asphalt is badly buckled in places, making sharply effective speed bumps on short intervals. It's not a path you can ride at high speed and it made us which we were riding a dual suspension mountain tandem at times.
We had left the Capitol at about 2 p.m. with our mileage at about 40. We'd skipped out on the last scheduled activity for the Event, which was to meet at 3 p.m at the Nuthouse, whatever and wherever that might be, but we needed to get Quinn at pre-school by 3:15 and Abbey at school at 3:30. Since there was road construction near the Capitol, we ended up walking the tandem for about 3 blocks between the Capitol and the River Trail, and our pace on the trail was pretty slow, so it was past 2:30 by the time we reached MSU, and we were still a long way from the pre-school. I had hoped we might have time to stop for a drink and a snack before we got Quinn, but with road construction, traffic and winding roads through the campus, and a stop for a train, we didn't reach Quinn until 3:15. We hooked up the trailer (we'd left it there when we dropped him off in the morning) and pedaled the final miles to Abbey's school. Right on time there, too, and just over 50 miles.
When we got home, we had Abbey take our picture...
30 March 2007
The first post. A quick look at the tandems.
This is the first post on our new blog. It's my intention to post our family adventures here this summer. I hope we have some.
We're expecting to do quite a bit of tandem bicycling this summer, so here's first look at what we'll be riding. They're pretty much entry level road tandems, but they have nice, steel frames, made in the U.S. by a great little co-op that just re-organized into a typical corporation and stopped making bicycles. A big loss to the world of tandem bicycles, I think. Nonetheless, we couldn't be happier with these bikes.
This is Cindy and Abbey's sparkly blue tandem. It's actually a 2005, a couple years old now, but they're the first team to own and ride it. Notice that it's a road tandem with 26" wheels. That's a smaller wheel than you'd find on most road tandems, but the only way to make a frame that fits such a small team. It is a much, much better fit than the old green machine they rode last year.
As you can seen in the next picture, the fit is quite good for Abbey in the stoker compartment. The bullhorn handlebars are flipped around and pointed toward her, and we have installed cranks shorteners so her feet can reach the pedals and to keep her pedaling circle reasonable. Cindy wasn't feeling up to being photographed, so we'll have to catch them riding together another time. Most importantly, notice how well the pink handlebar bag matches Abbey's pants. Of course, we always wear helmets when we ride, but this picture is taken on our back porch where vehicle traffic is limited.
This is the other bike, ridden by Quinn and me. We think it's a 2004, a year older than the sparkly little one, and we're the second owners, but it's pretty much unused. It has typical 700c road wheels, and is a great fit for me. A nice change, since the tandem we been riding previously was much too small for me. On each bike, we swapped the stock captain handlebar stem for one that angles up so that the handlebars are almost at the same height as the seat. It's important that we're all comfortable for long days in the saddle.
Here's Quinn, modeling the fit in his stoker compartment. Not only is he lacking a helmet, but he isn't wearing any shoes. We installed his child stoker kit on this bike, so he's able to pedal and give me a real boost when the hills get high. With the seat slid forward as far as possible, and the bullhorns extending backward, the fit actually seems quite good for him. He loves it.
We're expecting to do quite a bit of tandem bicycling this summer, so here's first look at what we'll be riding. They're pretty much entry level road tandems, but they have nice, steel frames, made in the U.S. by a great little co-op that just re-organized into a typical corporation and stopped making bicycles. A big loss to the world of tandem bicycles, I think. Nonetheless, we couldn't be happier with these bikes.
This is Cindy and Abbey's sparkly blue tandem. It's actually a 2005, a couple years old now, but they're the first team to own and ride it. Notice that it's a road tandem with 26" wheels. That's a smaller wheel than you'd find on most road tandems, but the only way to make a frame that fits such a small team. It is a much, much better fit than the old green machine they rode last year.
As you can seen in the next picture, the fit is quite good for Abbey in the stoker compartment. The bullhorn handlebars are flipped around and pointed toward her, and we have installed cranks shorteners so her feet can reach the pedals and to keep her pedaling circle reasonable. Cindy wasn't feeling up to being photographed, so we'll have to catch them riding together another time. Most importantly, notice how well the pink handlebar bag matches Abbey's pants. Of course, we always wear helmets when we ride, but this picture is taken on our back porch where vehicle traffic is limited.
This is the other bike, ridden by Quinn and me. We think it's a 2004, a year older than the sparkly little one, and we're the second owners, but it's pretty much unused. It has typical 700c road wheels, and is a great fit for me. A nice change, since the tandem we been riding previously was much too small for me. On each bike, we swapped the stock captain handlebar stem for one that angles up so that the handlebars are almost at the same height as the seat. It's important that we're all comfortable for long days in the saddle.
Here's Quinn, modeling the fit in his stoker compartment. Not only is he lacking a helmet, but he isn't wearing any shoes. We installed his child stoker kit on this bike, so he's able to pedal and give me a real boost when the hills get high. With the seat slid forward as far as possible, and the bullhorns extending backward, the fit actually seems quite good for him. He loves it.
The most important thing about cycling with kids, next to safety and comfort, of course, is that any long rides have plenty of stops at playgrounds, parks, restrooms, and ice cream shops. We'll see how well we do at this for the next few months.
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