Riding home through the “snow.”

First, let me say that I did not have my studded tires on. I will blame the weather people for that. For weeks they’ve been saying “omg blizzard we’re all going to die” and I’ll put on my snow tires. And then it won’t snow. At all. And then I have to take the tires off again. Which means I’ve wasted two hours of my life because somebody on tv lied to me. Sigh. So this time I called their bluff and did not put my snow tires on. More on this later.

I did have waterproof clothes and a ton of lights.

So we start from the bottom of Orange Street, which wasn’t bad. It was less than an inch of snow, really. After a block I turn right and climb a steep but short hill that is all snow. My back tire is slipping but I keep it upright and make it to the top to wait for the light. Studded tires would’ve been nice here, but the hill was short so…

The light turns green and I go left up Clinton. The conditions here are slush-tacular. The bike lane is at least visible, if not clear, and I easily pedal my way up the hill. At one point I think to myself “all you haters can eat my slushy wake” and then remind myself to breathe and pay attention.

I take a left on Lake, which is pretty clear. I cross Central and then take a right on Brandon. Brandon is a little one way street with no traffic. I go two blocks in peace, slowly cruising through the coating of snow and trying to enjoy what winter there is.

Left on Ontario. I have to pull over to let a bunch of cars by. No biggie. The first part of Ontario is a mess, in my opinion. It looked like they plowed it, but all they had really done with turn snow and slush into a layer of ice. I wasn’t having any problem with it, taking it slow and steady, keeping my bike straight and moving forward without any sudden movements. Cars, on the other hand, were not having as good a time as I was. Tires spinning all over the place.

The second part of Ontario, which would be after Madison, had some nice wide patches of fresh snow, so I stuck to that. Downhill past the Playdium, slowly, letting the hurried drivers go do whatever it is they’re in such a hurry to do.

Right on New Scotland I pick up a set of tire tracks. This is like one cyclist unintentionally leaving a long greeting in the snow. New Scotland is pretty heavily trafficked so it was clear enough. I took a left near Sycamore, and so did the tire tracks I was following. Those were some skinny tires.

My neighbor said “doesn’t matter what the weather is, you’re on your bike.” I replied, “hell yeah. This is the most fun I’ve had in a week.” And then I banked up the driveway. Strangely enough, the driveway had 3 inches of fresh powder in it.

A really enjoyable ride. There were only two or three spots I thought my studded tires would’ve been nice, but I didn’t regret calling the Weather Channel’s bluff this time. It was also nice to have an excuse to ride slowly, and just enjoy riding my bike, and enjoy winter.

This is the
Frederick Douglass Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge, named after two famous Rochesterians. I find it beautiful every day, but especially today with the frost on the ground.

And this is another view, looking towards downtown.

On this crisp morning, I feel incredibly blessed to bike to work.

WOW! It’s been a while! Jason and I did the Livestrong ride in Philly.

And then the summer just took off. I apologize for the lack of posts,
I rarely maintain my own blog, let alone the Bicycle Coalition blog.                                                  Then I was invited to do a rotating post on the Times Union blog.
Well, since I know most of the other bloggers,
and it only requires two posts a month, I think I can handle that, maybe.

Here it is.
Enjoy, link, and leave feedback or comments.
And I’ll try to not be such a stranger
(even though I do stop in everyday).

http://blog.timesunion.com/bike/the-cycling-dead/125/

From today’s New York Times:

It took a few miles to work the kinks out of my legs and churn up the first hill, but the payoff was spectacular. Lake Champlain sparkled blue in the distance, with the Adirondack Mountains rising stately in the background. Lush green hills were peppered with red silos, livestock and a white steeple far off. And then there were the trees, a patchwork of scarlet, orange and yellow that transformed a vista into something so perfect it almost didn’t look real.

• Read the story: “Pedal Peepers In Vermont”

The NYT also published a piece today by a reporter who tried out a pedicab for a day:

• Three Wheels Through the Park

A couple of weeks ago I took a bike ride near Holley, along the Erie Canal. This portion of the trail is not used much, and neither are many of the buildings, it appears.

I highly recommend that you make a day of it and take the kids to Hurd Orchards, one of western New York’s treasures. In the fall they serve apple pie which is yummy and filling enough to be your lunch.

Here are a few pictures from a couple of years ago. I get no credit for those adorable kids.

An evening scene in Asakusa, an area in the Shitamachi district of Tokyo. / Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

The New York Times featured this cool story about taking a bike tour along Japan’s famed Yamanote (ya-ma-no-tay) train line. I used to ride this line as part of my commute the second time I lived in Japan. When I worked for Bloomberg TV and Radio in Tokyo, my office was right in the area on this map where it says “Marunouchi Business District.”

Here’s the story:

• No Squishing: Biking a Tokyo Rail Line

I know I’m deranged but for some reason yesterday I started thinking about the seasons changing and instead of focusing on the fall my mind jumped straight to winter. I bike commuted last year up until sometime in November. I had intentions of going all year but somehow started having trouble getting motivated in the mornings. I really think it was more about gear than anything else.

My feet were getting too cold. I couldn’t find any combo of shoes and socks that worked for me (out of the pile of shoes and socks that I already owned.) And there’s something weird about being on a long ride and not being sure if you can’t feel your toes because you’ve been in the wrong position too long or because your toes are frostbitten and dead.

I rode 30 miles home from Rochester in sleet one evening and somewhere around mile 22 I started worrying that my toes were dead, that I would pull off my boot and to find something horrible like what I have seen on shows about Mt. Everest trips gone horribly wrong or Arctic expeditions where no one made it out alive. My mind wanders funny places when I’m riding a long time.

I really do want to ride year ’round but I think I need to find the right gear combination for me. I just use regular platform pedals so I don’t have to find something that will wrap around cycling shoes but I have to find something that is unstoppably warm.

I thought back to when I was a kid and spent hours in the snow. My feet didn’t fall off then. Mostly it was many layers of socks, plus bread bags over the socks stuffed into boots that were too big for me. Did other people’s parents send them outside like that or is my family crazy?

I never did try the bread bag thing last year though I probably should have. I think it was more the cold wind cutting through my damp shoes that did me in.

Anyone have any recommendations or thoughts on good footwear for biking in winter? I know it’s early, but it’s on my mind at the moment.

Finally, cyclists and pedestrians will be able to travel down Jefferson Road in Henrietta with a little bit of dignity:

More than one mile of the road will be upgraded, from the Marketplace Mall to under the Interstate 390 overpass. In addition to a third lane in both directions, there will be space for cyclists, sidewalks for pedestrians, and a median which will keep cars from crossing several lanes of traffic in order to make a left-hand turn.

As a cyclist, when I must travel on Jefferson Road I stick mostly to the parking lots, hopping onto the road for short stretches when there is no other option. I don’t know how they’ll handle such a heavy traffic load in a way that’s safe for non-motorists, but maybe they’ll use some ideas that have been proposed for places like New York City.

So I’m in Philly. Well technically I’m in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, home of Montgomery County Community College and the temporary home of the 2009 LIVESTRONG Challenge Ride – Philly edition.

On my way out of town this morning, I stopped by Eastern Mountain Sports because they sell Sigg bottles and I needed two new ones for the ride. The guy at the counter said, “You’re heading to Philly, right?” Apparently he’d visited RocBike.com and recognized me.

(A small aside: A woman named Paula in Albany has a Surly Big Dummy! My son Bernie and I were at the Downtube and saw it. She came out and noticed my Packet Boat and we chatted. She also knew who I was from reading this site. Paula agreed to become a contributor, too. Which, with the RocBike Curse, means she’ll soon stop writing about cycling completely. Sorry, Paula!)

Anway…

I arrived here in PA about 4 p.m. and headed straight for LIVESTRONG Village, the assemblage of vendors and nonprofits who surround the registration area. Recent rains had turned the ground into what Team Fatty Philly Captain “Philly Jen” described as a “mosh pit.” But everyone was in good spirits, and I saw several other members of Team Fatty while I was registering. The registration process was very efficient. According to one person at the site, there are more than 800 volunteers signed up for today and tomorrow to make the whole event run.

I got a nice bag o’ swag — hat, t-shirt, messenger bag, water bottle, and maybe a few other things that I have yet to dig out of the yellow LIVESTRONG bag. By the way, if you don’t like yellow, I recommend avoiding these rides. Everything is yellow.

The Team Fatty event at the Doubletree Hotel was running until 5 p.m. I made it with minutes to spare, just in time to meet Philly Jen (who saw me walk in and yelled “Jason!” — I guess there’s a shortage of chubby bald guys on our team) and another guy from Albany who wasn’t either Bob or me. Nor was he anyone I’d seen before. Small world. Apparently the Doubletree had booted out half of Team Fatty citing “water damage” on two floors. Rumor has it that the damage was more likely caused by overbooking, given that Team Fatty was booted out of another hotel owned by the same company at another recent Challenge ride. Sounds like the airline industry.

In search of some way to kill the hours between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m., when we all meet for breakfast, I drove around a bit. I found a park advertising a free concert at 6 p.m., so I followed the winding road back to the park … where a small sign said, “Concert Canceled.” I decided instead to eat dinner. I tried hard to avoid a chain restaurant, driving around until I spotted a big sign for Bombay High Indian Cuisine. I pulled in to the plaza to find that the highway sign and plaza sign had been installed, but the seats, tables, lights, kitchen and staff had yet to arrive. Sigh.

I ended up eating sushi at Benihana. I can’t believe I just typed that, and if you ever tell anyone, I’ll deny it. After three years in Japaan, I’m a real snob about Japanese food, and Benihana to me is like the Taco Bell of Japanese food. But I ate it and was grateful for some air conditioning and green tea.

The author at Barnes & Noble, delaying his date with the Hotel Subaru

I’m typing this in a Barnes and Noble because I’m staying tonight in the Hotel Subaru, and it doesn’t have wi-fi. In fact, it no longer has XM radio either, because some damned squirrels chewed through the antenna cable. I must say, the Hotel Subaru seemed much more inviting when I was tossing my sleeping bag in the back of the car this morning than it does now. Not least because my Xtracycle is also in the hotel’s one room, and it’s a very big bike. There’s a lovely thunderstorm now, too, so if this is my last blog entry, you’ll know why.

(I’ve been making an audio recording of the trip, too, so look for an episode of the RocBike Review after the ride.

When my partner and I go on vacations, we always take Zoe (pictured above). We also always want to get out on our bikes. This presents a problem, because it is always too hot to leave her in our car, and the other campers wouldn’t appreciate our leaving her in our tent. We know that she would bark the whole time. Our previous solution has been doggie day care. but this year, I finally convinced her that we should get a doggie bike basket. If you want to bring your canine companion with you, this is a good solution for a small dog. (Zoe weighs 8 pounds.)

Tanya had her handlebars shortened in order to fit her better, so the basket only fits on my bike. It really didn’t slow me down much at all and I kept up with her pretty well, especially surprising since she’s generally faster than me. Zoe was unsure about it at first, but seemed to settle in pretty quickly.

So far, I’ve only taken it on bike trails and side streets. I would be hesitant to bike on a busy and/or hilly road with it, because the extra weight on the bars takes some getting used to, and I felt like it slowed my reaction time.

A great bonus is that it seems impossible for another rider to pass without smiling and saying, “Aawwwwww,” with the inflection rising at the end.

I’ve started riding my bike again to get ready for my Livestrong Challenge ride in Philly this August. (Please donate if you can.) This week, after many months, I also resumed commuting by bike again.

I began working for Capital Region BOCES earlier this year, and those offices are farther away than my union shops were. It’s about 8 miles from my house to BOCES HQ, where I work two days a week, and about 12 miles from my house to the school district office where I work the other three days.

Today I rode from home to the school district in Selkirk, NY, and back for the first time, about 24 miles. I took some photos on the way home.

This is my favorite sign in Selkirk:

From 144 Commute

I don’t know who came up with the idea of putting golf balls and rhubarb together, but it’s a classic.

Most of my commute is on Route 144, a primarily rural route through some tiny places such as Cedar Hill. A couple miles into the ride home, I came upon these lions, liberated from either “Guy Park” or “Cuy Park.”

From 144 Commute

As you can see, the structure they now protect is not particularly imposing:

From 144 Commute

Further on up the road is the somewhat secluded site of the Glenmont Job Corps Academy:

From 144 Commute

I don’t know much about the Job Corps, but this comes from the Web site:

Job Corps is a free education and training program that helps young people learn a career, earn a high school diploma or GED, and find and keep a good job. For eligible youth at least 16 years of age, Job Corps provides the all-around skills needed to succeed in a career and in life.

You can find out more by visiting jobcorps.gov.

Most of the commute looks like this, plus a hill here and there:

From 144 Commute

And here’s a gratuitous picture of the Packet Boat, ready for action:

From 144 Commute

Sprinkled along 144 are forgotten houses like this one:

From 144 Commute

And here’s another wonderful sign. I like the idea of a wrathful Mother Nature:

From 144 Commute

A relic from a bygone error … I mean era:

From 144 Commute

I didn’t even know what this was at first, but it turned out to be a vintage electric car:

From 144 Commute

This is the bottom of the hill at Second Ave and Pearl. This is the start of 3/4 of a mile of climbing, much of it at a 7% grade. The picture doesn’t do it justice:

From 144 Commute

My legs were jelly at the end, but I made it the whole way.

It sure does feel good to be back on the bike.

The rest of the pictures from today’s ride are here.

Emily says there’s only two things to worry about when packing for camping trips: warmth and rain gear. As we get ready to bike the canal for three days starting tomorrow, she organizes her clothes into neat piles and readies the Zip-lock bags.

Whenever I’m listening to music I’m thinking, this would be a good soundtrack to the bike video I’ve never made…  that I’m going to make… any day now. Seeing the d-i-y camera mount post the other day made me think I should actually dig out my gorilla pod from wherever it was hiding and make a video.

I wholeheartedly recommend the d-i-y method, but if you want a slightly more expensive alternative that works out of the box, I recommend the gorilla pod (depending on the size and the size of your camera the stability will vary.) I always tie my camera strap to the handle bars for extra insurance but haven’t had any problems with it coming off… it just jiggles a bit.

I went out and did a loop around the neighboring block with my camera in video mode to test it out. It went pretty well. I did speed it up, compressing the 22 minute ride into less than 3 minutes, so in case you weren’t sure, I’m not actually a bike racing superhero.

Handlebar Cam video from a loop around my block>>

I plan to do some video of my commute now that all I have to do is slide the camera into the gorilla pod mount quick release thingy.

I would just like to report that, in addition to RocBike’s rank in the top 50 at London Cyclist, my public service announcement has apparently worked.

My rides home over the past couple of weeks have been exceedingly pleasant.

I attribute it to the power of RocBike.

On Saturday I started riding toward Geneva. My goal was to end up at the Geneva Bicycle Center. I needed a spare tube but mostly I thought I needed someplace to ride, a destination. It’s about 14 miles away so there and back seemed like it would be a good ride. I passed Cress road and started thinking that I’d never been down it & wasn’t sure where it went, made a u-turn and was off on a little explore. I covered a lot of uncharted territory in empty space between Lyons, Newark, and Phelps, an area formerly thought to be occupied only by sea monsters and steep hills. It turns out that the steep hills part is correct but the sea monsters were actually just cows. Lots and lots of cows.

I never did make it to the bike shop. I just wandered the back roads for a couple of hours until I remembered how little breakfast I’d eaten then spent another 40 minutes singing to myself about my plans to eat a sandwich while I tried to find my way home.

I never love biking more than when I’m exploring new territory… and there’s so much unexplored territory right under my nose even though I’ve lived here forever… well, almost forever. What’s hiding down that side street that you just cruise by every day?

After skipping a week of bike commuting for reasons I have yet to reveal to myself, I’m back on board.

Of course, this morning didn’t go perfectly. I felt like I was going so slow. I was operating in easier gears than usual. I was fighting imaginary headwinds. Somehow despite all that I was the first person at the bus stop. I was still the only person there when the bus pulled up. Both racks on the front were taken already so I resigned myself to wrestling with the luggage compartment. It seemed to be stuck & I thought it was locked but somehow I got it open… as soon as it opened I realized that this was not in fact the luggage compartment but the access panel for the engine or some other important mechanical bus stuff. And now, it wouldn’t close.

I don’t know if I opened the wrong panel because I was so tired or because I was approaching it from an odd angle.

The bus driver got off and was asking me how I got it open in the first place. He couldn’t get it closed either. I tried to help but that seemed futile so I put my bike in the real luggage compartment and then went back to attempting to help the bus driver. Then another cyclist rode up. This guy gets off after me… so I hauled my bike back out of the luggage compartment so he could put his in first and then shoved it back in and somehow the three of us managed to close the access panel.

I felt pretty cool right then.

Other than the bus fiasco it was a beautiful ride. I saw a king bird and was noticing just how thick the grass is and how green everything is all of a sudden. I love that bike commuting gets me out in to the world earlier than I would even think of leaving the house if I didn’t have a bus to catch. It’s a whole different world out there at 6 a.m. The light changes dramatically as the seasons change but it’s always a quieter, crisper, world that early in the morning, and it feels like it’s all mine.

i have serious problems with ALOT of things,
one being the photo size selection on WP,
so to view pictures while I’m struggling on WP,
visit me @ Liberty on Bikes! .

SO BACK TO OUR TOPIC.
For those that are LCI certified, by-the-book cyclists,
I ‘m sorry to offend, but it’s something I naturally do….

There’s been alot of debate lately on every blog on:
cyclists running red lights,
cyclists running stop signs,
cyclists passing cars on the right at red lights
(which happens to be my everyday doing)
and cyclists needing to abide by all laws.

UMMMMMM, wait for it….
NO!
There I said it!
I’m not irresponsible,
and I certainly don’t advocate breaking laws,
or pose a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ rule.

I ADVOCATE ARRIVING TO HOME/WORK ALIVE!

And until motorists respect other roadway users,
I’ll ride on the offense.
Passing stopped cars on the right?
It’s safer for me to start the green light up front,
rather than be in the middle of rush hour traffic
trying to pass me while I start off ten cars behind.

When it’s bumper to bumper and at a stand still,
and there’s a wide shoulder onthe right?
SORRY! I’m gonna get on that and keep moving!
Who’s going to sit behind a tailpipe waiting in traffic?
You’re an angry motorist? Well then, get a bike!
Surprisingly, in town you can beat traffic!

Lastly:
- a bad cyclist will do less harm than a bad driver.
- since driver’s are unwilling to share the road, and
abide by the laws, I WILL DO WHATEVER I NEED TO
SURVIVE. The laws were not written for cyclists safety.
- If motorists want us to abide by ALL traffic laws,
THEN I’M TAKING THE WHOLE LANE LIKE A MOTORCYCLE!
oh wait, they don’t want THAT.
- So it’s a double standard? Yeah, I’m not buying what they’re selling.

This past Friday was Bike To Work Day and I got to pretend I was purposely recruiting other cyclists to bike commuting in honor of the day. In reality it just happened to work out that the person who has been saying to me “Yeah I’d really like to try that.” for, mmm, 2 years just happened to cave to my “How ’bout tomorrow? How ’bout Thursday then? Friday?”

She could do Friday. We agreed that I would get off the bus early and ride to meet her & her husband at Perinton park & we would all ride together from there. They showed me some crazy shortcuts through parking lots and nice wooded trails in East Rochester that would be useful to know but that I will never in a million years be able to remember. We got to work and she bought me a coffee and I saw a cockroach crawling through the hole of a blueberry bagel in the bakery case, not relevant to the story, except that I decided I didn’t want a bagel.

In late spring & summer we have half days on Fridays so we met up at the bike rack around 12:30 and after some lunch we biked over to Pittsford to pick up the canal trail. She rode with me well past her house. Once we got past the crowded parts of the towpath I got to try out her recumbent for a few miles. It took me a while to even get moving but once I got the hang of it, I was laughing like a maniac because I felt sort of like I was in Mario Kart and that someone would start shooting giant turtle shells at me, also I felt like it might flop over at any moment. It was very comfortable & fun & I would try it again. I don’t know what everybody’s got against recumbents except for the weird need to classify everyone as one kind of cyclist or another. I don’t think I’ll rush out to buy one though–I’m still happy with my current bike (mostly).

I’m not  sure my friend is totally sold on bike commuting as a practical option. Historically she’s been more of a leisure time cyclist. She told me a couple of times that I needed gel shorts and cleats. I’m sure those things are awesome and maybe I would be able to ride my whole commute without bus assistance if I had them, but I like to being able to ride without a lot of specialized gear. Just get on the bike and go and be able to get off the bike and walk without a major wardrobe change. But then again maybe I’m doing that cyclist classification thing too.

Anyway, I know she had fun and she wants to do it again this Friday so maybe she’s sold after all.

Dear men-who-hang-out-near-the-underpass-on-the-trail-I-ride-home (and I don’t mean to be sexist, but you are always men),

1–Why do you hang out there? It’s stinky, full of broken glass, and creepy. Then again, maybe that’s why you hang out there.

2–How many of you are there? Although I have never seen any one individual more than once, and you are of different ages and races, I must assume that you all belong to the same tribe, as your behavior is unfailingly obnoxious, and at least 5 of you are there EVERY afternoon/evening when I bike home, regardless of the time.

3–I hate to be the one to break this to you, but…”Hey, baby, can I get a riiiide?” does not actually inspire women to cancel their plans for the evening, do a 180 on their bike, and jump your bones. (p.s. Nor is it particularly original.)

4–Whether out of aggressiveness or cluelessness, it’s just not charming when you hog the whole trail. Would it really kill you to move over, for just a second, so that I can pass?

5–I would like you to know that I plan to continue to take this route. For one thing, alternate routes involve alarming amounts of cars anxious to escape their work days and head home. For another, I don’t think you’re really dangerous…you just want to display your machismo so your buddies don’t notice your inadequacies.

Finally, you don’t get to hog the trail. I have just as much right to be there as you.

Sincerely,

Every-cyclist-(especially female)-that-passes-by-you

Last night I biked to the Sanctuary for Independent Media to catch “Two Wheels Good,” a bicycle movie celebration.

I showed up for the group ride. I watched the people coming and going on their boats.

Nobody showed up, so I took off on my own. It took me about 40 minutes to get there, and I felt like I was “booking.” The Corning Trail was like running a gauntlet of bugs. I couldn’t keep my head up because they’d get in my mouth, nose, and eyes. I could hear them pinging off my helmet, and feel them getting stuck in the hair on my arms. Ew.

The valet parking left a little to be desired. But then, maybe I was just too early. Still, it’s nice to see people’s bikes.

Troy Bicycle Rescue was raffling off this sweet cruiser bike.

Eventually the movies started. They were wonderful. There really was something for everyone. Monty Python. Footage of unicyclists in an ice race in Schenectady. A bit about not doping in bike racing. Women biking across the country, or cutting down mountain trails. DIY bike repair. Everything.

My favorite was “Ski Boys” by Benny Zenga. It made me want to be a kid again. You can watch that one here.

Then the ride home. I got stopped on 6th by some young guys who loved the MonkeyLectric lights on my bike. Perhaps it’s racist of me to say this, but white people do not appreciate the glory of LEDs that make a pattern when they spin around. I rode home alone. Going through Menands was wonderful. The traffic was light, the street lights were on. I just took the whole lane and sped along. I rode with no hands for blocks and blocks, my windbreaker flapping like a flag.

More pics here.