bikelovejones

As a proud alumna of Portland State University (B.A. '01), I am happy to report that collegiate cycling is alive and well at the home of the Vikings.

Portland State's Cycling Club is featured this month at USA Cycling's Web site. USA Cycling (formerly known as the US Cycling Federation, back when I got my race mechanic certification with them) has done a lot to grow the sport at the collegiate level. PSU has made great strides to bring bike racing back into the fabric of campus life. Previous attempts at fielding a bike team met with varying success and were mostly short-lived, most lasting a few seasons before folding from lack of support and members. When I was a student at Portland State in the 80's there was NO organized cycling activity at all; when I returned to the campus in 1998 there was a fledgling attempt at a cycling club that lasted a few years and folded, mostly for lack of financial support. But today, PSU Cycling has a thriving racing scene for eligible students, and also a friendly and welcoming recreational scene for the larger PSU community (students, faculty, staff and alumni). PSU Cycling members appeared at the PIR Short-track XC series last summer, and at nearly every cyclocross race of the fall (I lined up with at least four of their women as part of a crowded Barton Park start field in November).  I am happy to be an alumni supporter of PSU Cycling and I hope they go far.

Read all about the team's accomplishments here. As a club sport, PSU Cycling is supposed to be self-supporting, which means that these college students have to pay for race fees, uniforms and transportation to local and regional events. And oh, yeah, they also have to juggle their academics with time for training, racing and, um, sleeping (remember kids, resting is part of training.)
Sure, they get discounts on bikes and some gear, but nobody's getting a free ride (ahem) here.
If you're inspired to help them out, You can make a check to PSU Cycling, and send it to them:

PSU Cycling
c/o Portland State University
PO Box 751
Portland OR 97201

LET'S GO VIKINGS!

I rode over to Cecil's and arrived a little before 9am. We'd decided upon an eastside, easy-paced "coffee" ride and I figured it'd be easier if I just rode across town and we all started out together. Lynne pulled up shortly after I did and by 9:15 or so we were ready to head out.

Nothing momentous to report. Actually, it was a really enjoyable ride, where I was able to sustain a pace of 13 to 14 mph or so on the flats for much of the ride. It felt good to push myself just slightly like that. (Lynne is a stronger rider than me, and Cecil is stronger than both of us, so yeah it felt a tiny bit like pushing my usual city pace, but in a really enjoyable, refreshing way.)

It was a dry, cool morning (low 40's when I got to Cecil's, warmed up to low 50's when we finished) and cloud cover that might eventually burn off, but probably not before our ride was done. I got it just right, with knickers, a couple layers of wool and a rain shell just in case.

We cruised through Colonial Heights in SE, headed out to Hollywood neighborhood and crossed the freeway, then rode up to Alameda Ridge (it's a lot mellower than riding straight up the hill on 37th, like Sweetie and I do when we're coming back from the Farmers' Market). From there we did a big, easy loop through Alameda, Wilshire, Concordia and Woodlawn neighborhoods and headed over to N. Willamette for a easy ride over to the Columbia Slough (via the Peninsula Crossing trail). At the entrance to the Slough path that would take us to Smith and Bybee lakes, we were stymied by a long train. Okay, a very long train. We couldn't see the end of it. After we sipped from our thermoses, admired Lynne's latest knitting project (the first of two sorta-gloves -- beautiful, I want a pair!) and watched Cecil grow more annoyed with the length of the train (it was really very long), we decided to skip Smith and Bybee Lakes, turn around and ride through the New Columbia area and just tootle around North Portland until we found our way to Little Red Bike Cafe. I forgot that Jordan doesn't run through the other side of Lombard, took us about ten blocks too far, and we had to come back on Lombard to the cafe, but this being Super Bowl Sunday the roads weren't too busy.

After a light lunch (get the Paper Boy sandwich! Yummy!)  we rode back to Willamette and looped back around to Ainsworth, where I split off from Cecil and Lynne to head home. A delicious ride, nearly 30 miles for me including the pre-ride to Cecil's.

Cycle Oregon has announced its 2010 route, a ten-day bike tour through northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington that will include a layover in Pendleton during the 100th anniversary of the Pendleton Round-Up. The cost of the supported tour (about 850 bucks) is currently beyond me, though I suppose I could save up one year and go. It's always a great ride that takes you through some of the most beautiful places in our state. And I admit that Cycle Oregon is one of those rides I've always dreamed of doing.

Sadly, I can almost never participate in Cycle Oregon, because the organizers almost always find a way to have the start or end dates overlap Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. And this year is no exception. The ride takes off from Elgin just after the second day of Rosh Hashanah, loops through cattle country and returns to Elgin on Yom Kippur afternoon.

This conflict happens, on the average, every other year or so. And I'm sure that it's pretty much a non-issue for the organizers. After all, the 2,000 reserved spots fill up quickly, usually within a month of the route announcement. The number of observant Jews in Oregon is tiny. The number of observant Jews who are also avid bicyclists is probably microscopic. I'm used to not counting, I'm used to organizers of bike events not looking at a Jewish calendar. This is what being Jewish is like when you don't live in New York or Los Angeles.

So In September, while 2,000 people are out riding their bikes and rubbing shoulders with cowboys in Pendleton, I will observe the Days of Awe -- and then get ready for cyclocross season. It's a trade-off I can accept.

Portland's City Council meeting was filled to the rafters today with people awaiting a vote on the passage of the Bicycle Master Plan 2030, which outlines new amenities for increased bicycle transportation to be built over the next 20 years. The folks at City Hall, anticipating the large turnout from bicycle riders, set up several portable bike racks in the courtyard of City Hall, and they were pretty darned full as I passed by (I arrived in downtown too late for the pre-meeting rally, and had to get home so I didn't try to squeeze into the meeting myself). Among the stated goals, besides decreasing overall motor traffic congestion and improving pedestrian and bike-rider safety, is one to increase bicycle usage so that, by 2030, 25% of all trips made in the city will be made by bicycle -- an insanely ambitious goal for an American city, even one as bike-mad as Portland.

While most in attendance in the Council Chambers -- including most on the City Council -- were in support of the plan, several people in attendance testified concerns over placement of particular amenities (one proposed new bike path is situated near a major freight truck route in Northwest Portland, and frankly that may have to be re-thought). Others worried about the costs of building new bicycle infrastructure while we're still in the middle of a recession. A couple of people said that theybe hard-pressed to support the building of still more bike infrastructure until education and enforcement regarding safe bicycle use were made a priority.

(Um, am I the only one who finds this last demand a little ironic? Consider the number of cyclist fatalities from bike-car collisions in Oregon over the last five years, where the person behind the wheel of the car was at fault and got off with little or no real penalty -- in no small part because of a lack of education and enforcement regarding safe automobile use. In Oregon the bike lobby is still trying to get a vehicular homicide bill passed into law, while other states have had such laws in place for decades.)

After hearing over two solid hours of testimony, the Council voted to postpone a final decision on the plan until next week. A couple of comments over at BikePortland were extremely telling:

Mark C. wrote:

I think the vitriol from the anti-bike crowd stems from the fact that even though nobody is being forced out of their car, the anti-bike contingent can see that the days of them being subsidized so that they can cheaply drive their 150-pound body around in a 3000-pound car anywhere they want are coming to an end, and they are reminded of it every time they see someone on a bike. Plain and simple, they are scared s**tless, and they are lashing out.

and Ian C. responded:

Mark C., I agree with you. Many people feel that the ground is shifting underneath them for many reasons- resource scarcity, unemployment, Obama, the real prospect of decreased standard of living in the future, climate change. In short, the world they thought they were going to live in the rest of their lives is changing in unexpected ways.

***************

Last night I had the pleasure of visiting a local synagogue and speaking with middle and high school students about the true costs of transportation (of course, this was a synagogue class I did it by tying in Hillel's teaching from Pirke Avot that we must make choices wisely and keep the bigger picture in mind as we do so; every choice we make informs and is informed by others, and none of us operates in a vacuum).

I shared with them some evidence as to how Americans pay so little to own and drive cars because the costs are largely subsidized by a collaboration between government and private interests that continue to promote a transportation system centered around petroleum-fueled cars. Europeans, by contrast, pay far more to own automobiles and as a result fewer Europeans (at least in urban centers) own cars for personal use. As a result there is better and more public transit and better bike infrastructure in most European cities.

Stop me if you've heard all this before, but for most of the kids it was brand new information, and pretty shocking since nearly all of them anticipate owning a car of their own before too terribly long. At least a couple of students stopped to chat with me briefly after the study session ended, and were impressed that I've lived without a car of my own for twenty years. "And you don't look, you know, poor, or unhappy, or anything," one 7th-grader observed with a little look of surprise.

Nope. Not poor, not unhappy. Let's hope City Council gets it right next week. It will only be the beginning but it would certainly be a start.

Tom Daly is a nice young man who moved to Portland, immediately understood the bike culture and decided he wanted to become a part of it. So he got a job at Joe-Bike, where I had the pleasure of meeting him last year. This year, he's striking out on his own with a tiny, TINY repair shop he jokingly calls "WTF Bikes".

Sad news is that, three days before his grand opening party, he's been ripped off and cleaned out. Bikes, tools, everything. Stolen items include a customer's $500.00 bike that he has to come up with replacement money for.

As a fellow bike mechanic this one stabs me in the heart. When you steal bikes you are basically hanging out with the scum of the earth right there. Take a mechanic's tools, and you are the organic junk that the bottom feeders leave behind when they're done. Bike mechanics don't do this to get rich (ask me, I know). We do it because we love bicycles and know that someday they will help save the world.

So here's the article about the burglary. If you go to look at this, please no snarky remarks about the vulnerability of the fence, or of the shop space. The guy is just starting out and doing the best he can. Trustifarians aside, we've all been there at some point in our lives, we've all known that kind of vulnerability. So no crticism about the fencing. It's a rental, for crying out loud.

After reading the story, if you are moved enough to make a donation to help this enterprising young man out, go to WTF's Web site and scroll to the bottom, where you'll find a Donation button. I'm helping out a colleague who's been kicked in the stomach, and invite you to do the same. Thanks.

Since Universal Sports will only show the Cyclocross World Championships online, and since my computer is so old that watching videos there takes three times as long as the posted time (lots of halts and starts), it's likely that, instead of watch worlds tomorrow at 8am (5am EST), I may actually celebrate worlds by going out on Stompy in the morning and having some cyclocross silliness at the park instead. In my case it actually seems appropriate.

***************

In other news: forces exist that could thwart my dream of an all-singlespeed race at next year's Cross Crusade. My idea was to move the Mens' B's (on geared bikes) somewhere else in the day and have mens' and womens' singlespeed classes race together in a pure singlespeed heat. Unfortunately, after several months of research and polling, it seems that:

a. The Cross Crusade organizers aren't really into it, mostly for logistic reasons. The race day schedule is already pretty full.
b. The overwhelming majority of women responding to my informal poll have indicated they would prefer to race with other women and just be counted separately for racing on a singlespeed bike; most do NOT want to race with the men if they can help it. Am I crazy for thinking a pure-singlespeed race would work better, or am I missing something here?
c. The OBRA official in charge of logistics has gently pointed out that adding another classification to an already-full slate (there are already six categories racing together in the womens' race) would create a tabulating nightmare for race officials and therefore would likely be vetoed by OBRA anyway. I appreciated her perspective and thanked her for the additional information.

I am not hopeful for changes to the Cross Crusade schedule.

..::sigh::..

On a positive note, I decided to ask the organizer of the PIR short-track xc series how he'd feel about at least adding a separate classification for womens' singlespeed, no matter where in the schedule they would race -- and he liked the idea.

In a fit of optimism (suicide?) I went ahead and catted up to singlespeed for both short-track and cross this year. It may be the stupidest thing I've done yet in my tiny racing career -- I could get killed out there -- but the thought of racing with so many other singlespeeders actually appeals to me much more than getting hung up behind another racer whose shifter malfunctions. That happened too many times in the womens' races last summer and it was not pleasant.

********************

Goals for 2010:

1. More yoga, at least two the three mornings a week. It seems to help on some micro level and maybe it will help strengthen me.

2. More core work. In my case, and on my budget, that probably means curls and variations thereof every other night, gradually increasing number of reps/sets over time. I can't afford to buy weight equipment for home use, join a gym or hire a coach, so it's likely another year of hit and miss for me. I would like to think that my daily commuting at least gives me a base to work with that helps offset the effects of not "working out" at a gym. I have thought of keeping more detailed records of my riding and training but that may backfire for me emotionally (i.e., getting down on myself when life, medical issues and other ephemera intrude on my ability to train more carefully), so I've avoided it thus far.

3. Working with my doctor more closely (as closely as I can at a free/low cost clinic, anyway) to reduce the frequency of Crohn's flare-ups and the way they interfere with my riding and racing. This may mean changes in both drugs and diet, or it may mean listening better to my body so I can avoid a repeat of what happened at the PIR cross race. (I shouldn't have raced that day, in retrospect.)

4. At least one populaire/metric century this year, two if I can swing it. (I'm looking at riding the Monster Cookie in April since there doesn't yet seem to be a populaire on the Oregon Rando calendar.)

5. I'd like to finish somewhere other than dead last in at least one short-track race and one cross race. I realize that by catting up to singlespeed I may have killed my chances of doing this but there it is.

6. To finish every single race I enter -- no DNFs!

7. (not a racing goal per se, but a goal nonetheless) I want to find a way to swing a trip to bend for CrossNats before it leaves the Pacific Northwest after this year. I'm not necessarily interested in racing there -- it will be crazy-cold, the course will be very "road-y", and I will probably be quite worn out by the end of the season (especially if I race at USGP again this year, which In spite of all common sense I think I might do). I am working on potential ways this might happen.

8. I will examine my relationship with racing carefully this year, on several fronts:

a. how does having a non-cycling partner affect my training and racing decisions?
b. how does affiliating with an organization based very far away affect my training and racing decisions?
c. how does my age and my having Crohn's affect my training and racing decisions?
d. How does my job -- the schedule, the activities and stresses thereof -- affect my training and racing decisions?

The answers to these questions will help me to figure out how I want to proceed.

***************

Stompy 2.0 is just about finished. I am going to swap in a low-profile rear cantilever brake so that I can avoid heel-strike while I pedal. It will look strange but it will work and that is really what I care about. Everything else is done and the bike, though admittedly a bit heavier than the Kona, fits me better and is probably about as good as I can come up with on such a tight budget. (Thank goodness I work in a shop and can swing a pro-deal on older models of stuff now and then! There's NO way I could've upgraded without this reality.) I am hanging onto the Kona until it's clear that I won't need to swap back for any reason, but so far it feels like the Redline is going to work out.

Stories in the news this week include reports of firings across the country. Among them:

--A teacher in New York was fired because her boss thought that her obesity was "not conducive" to a good learning environment.
--A secretary in Pennsylvania was let go because of a political bumper sticker on her car (the sentiment didn't jibe with her boss' political views, though he was not required to explain that when he fired her).
--A teacher in the midwest was fired because a photo of her -- taken on her own time, at a strip club, in a playfully suggestive pose with a male stripper -- was posted a social networking site. Students found the photo online and called the school to tattle.
--A man applying for a technical writing position in California was denied employment because of political writings at his personal blog.

In all cases, First Amendment rights to freedom of speech an/or privacy didn't apply and in all cases the individuals were fired legally. This is because technically, those First Amendment rights only apply to those in Federal government positions. They don't apply at all to those working in the private sector.

And, not in the recent news but equally pertinent:

--A employer admitted to me that she uses interns to help her search the social networking sites to learn more about candidates interviewing for positions at her organization. This searching can, for example, help her more accurately determine a person's age (are photos of them on Facebook or Flickr? Does the candidate have gray hair and wrinkles?), something which may not be apparent in an especially vague resume and which she could never legally ask in an interview.
--a few months ago, a friend who's looking for work told me she decided to dye her hair, because her natural hair is shot through with gray and all her years of experience in a highly specialized field won't help her get past the ageism in the job market.
--employers now routinely screen applicants' credit ratings to eliminate those with financial troubles (though there is now political work being done to try and outlaw this particular practice as overly prejudicial -- after all, only someone who's immensely wealthy never has financial issues, and therefore never has to look for work).

This reality also has certainly influenced my decision to avoid things like Facebook and MySpace, places where social networking has gone viral and anyone can find out almost anything about each other if they look hard enough. What if I join Facebook and somehow an enterprising person can find a way to look up my credit rating, work history and everything else that I haven't deliberately put out there? With the rise of the Electronic Information Age comes a caution to be careful what you share, because it can come back to bite you later.

This outgrowth of a free market -- in which we told repeatedly that, if we don't like our job, we 're free to leave and go work somewhere else -- is more complicated than the law takes into account. In a toilet economy, it's not always easy -- or even possible -- to just go find another job. Which is why workers accept the law and don't agitate to fight the corporate interests that limit First Amendment protections for private-sector workers. The risk -- of losing your job and then losing your home and perhaps your family -- is just too great.

On the plus side, this means that an employer can fire someone whose off-work activities may actually hamper their ability to perform effectively at work, and can screen out potential hires (often without their knowledge) to avoid hiring anyone who might genuinely be a poor fit for their company.
On the down side, many employers will allow their hiring choices to be heavily influenced by personal values that have nothing to do with the work at hand, and the social networking sites give them a more efficient way way to do that.

It also means that perhaps the wisest among us -- those who value their personal freedom even more than material security -- are far less likely to seek employment in fields where their personal lives will come under the greatest scrutiny, whether there's anything in them that's objectionable or not. They are willing to work for less, live on less, and have rearranged their lives to allow for that level of freedom.

Not coincidentally, there are lots of people like this in the bicycle industry.

...for the best damned thing I have ever read about cycling and menstrual cycles:

http://www.embrocationmagazine.com/online/womanly-cycles

(note: PG-13 for mature audiences)

If you're a guy you may not appreciate this. But if you're a woman and you ride you will nod your head in total agreement even as you roll around on the floor in laughter. Because it's Just So True.

Just read at a web site how a members of a California race club had planned for a weekend training camp.
When it looked like there would be rain most of the weekend, more than a third of the team decided not to attend. It sounds like those who did attend may have ridden fewer miles than intended as a result of the weather. To be fair, California has seen a LOT of rain this month, but where the camp was to be located was not near any of the danger zones. Other than a lot of rain, there would have been no danger in riding a bike in the area.

When I did GYGIG (the Crohn's research fundraising ride) in 2007, I showed up with my brevet bike -- full fenders and a handlebar bag -- and brought along my rain jacket, Just In Case. The first morning of the ride, leaving Edmonds, Washington, dawned grey and drizzly. By the time the ride left the start area, it was raining steadily. Out of 60 riders present, I was the only one who'd brought functional raingear and whose bike had full fenders (one other bike had a clip-on splash guard). I whistled softly and contentedly as we pedaled away from the Edmonds marina, clad in rain jacket, jersey, shorts, and arm and leg warmers. There was a thermal mug of coffee in one of my bottle cages. Riders who had come from back east looked at me like I was mad. It was the first weekend in August, and the temperature was around 50 degrees (though it would warm up later). "How did you know?" they stammered, shivering in their thin summer-weight kit.

"I live here," I replied. "It rains a lot, sometimes even in August." I shrugged, smiled gently, and offered them each a peppermint candy from my handlebar bag, to take their minds off the rain.

Is riding in the rain really all that bad if you live somewhere other than the Pacific Northwest?

This is not a rhetorical question.

Today's weather: partly cloudy; highs near 50. I'll take the rain chaps along, Just In Case.

Yesterday, a co-worker called me to tell me that my bag had been found "at the restaurant" and to please call my pal Tori.

I called the sushi place first, thinking it had been turned in there. But no, they had no clue. So then I called Tori, who said the bag was at Chez Joly -- a lovely French bistro just down the street from the sushi place. I called there and indeed, they had my bag. They'd gotten Tori's number from the notebook inside. I was thrilled -- my notebooks were intact.

I picked the bag up today and my suspicions were confirmed -- the bag had indeed been stolen because the thief took all my tools, patch kit and mini-pump, pens and pencils, and -- get this! -- my day's supply of Cholestyramine (which I take for Crohn's, not sure what he thinks he's gonna do with that). But the notebooks and my calendar were still there.
I am pleased and relieved that I don't have to shop for another messenger bag anytime soon. I'm still thinking about an electronic calendar device but that's another post for later...

Meanwhile, Chez Joly looks like a cool place and I may ask Sweetie if we can go there for my birthday.

Yesterday, Massachussetts voted in a Republican senator, killing the Senate's 60-seat super-majority and pretty much ending any meaningful discussion on health care reform this session.
Today, the Supreme Court overturned the 100-year-old ban on limiting corporate contributions to political campaigns, meaning that campaign finance reform is also officially a dead issue, and will be for a very long time.

So, to sum up:

-- this Country is being run by a small conglomerate of government, corporations and the entertainment industry posing as independent sectors (and doing a horrible acting job, by the way)
-- your vote means perhaps a little bit at the local level and absolutely nothing at the federal level
-- a true living wage, workplace justice, affordable housing, job training, marriage equality and socialized health care are actually the imaginings of a fevered mind and will not happen in your lifetime
-- now get back to work, you little worm

Or something like that.

I know it's a lot to ask, but if I'm being screwed so completely and so effectively by those in Power I'd at least like a little truth-telling to that effect. I want someone to appear on my TV screen or YouTube or whatever and just say it like it is.

I am waiting for something like the Two Minutes' Truth.

Barack Obama couldn't possibly change a system that (a) he was spawned from and (b) is so firmly entrenched. He is nowhere near anything resembling a liberal democrat, or even, frankly, a centrist.

Once again, I feel lied to and ripped off by my government. And that is why I am once again thinking of taking a hiatus from voting. I stopped voting for five years in the mid 80's. The world continued to turn and my vote was not missed. So I'm not sure that all this voting I've been doing has had a profound effect on the world around me. I'm beginning to suspect that my lifestyle choices are making more of a difference than any vote I've cast in the last 15 years. And I'm thinking of tearing up my voters' card again. Because my personal experience of American politics is that it's just so much bullshit. I'd much rather vote with my wallet and my actions. It means more and might actually accomplish something.

This ride was all about stretching my legs and enjoying the scenery. I hadn't ridden my Smith & Bybee Lakes loop in quite awhile so I decided to head out there. It was a good choice, with a light rain and mostly-empty roads. Other than getting a flat in downtown St. Johns and being pestered for my stuff by a homeless man while I repaired the flat, the rest of the ride was really good. Especially the scenery.





(Taken from the top of the grade at Rivergate T5. St. Johns bridge in the distance at left.)






(Skyline ridge.)

Total distance: about 20 miles. The flat and its accompanying hassles extended my ride to almost 2 1/2 hours long; otherwise I would've easily finished in under two hours.

I am considering taking on the Monster Cookie Ride in April, assuming I can get a ride to and from Salem. I hear it's a fun route, a metric century (about 62 miles); and it's possible friends might want to go along. It offers slightly more support than a traditional populaire and while I still like doing long distances, I'd like some added sociality that an organized ride like this can offer.

Tonight while I was enjoying a cheap dinner at Sushi Ichiban in downtown Portland my Timbuk2 messenger bag was stolen. It was parked right next to where I sat and whomever took it was so quiet and fast I never noticed.

Management's response was rather laid back for a customer who'd just been ripped off: "The people sitting next to you were regulars, in here every few nights; I'm sure one of them grabbed it by mistake and will probably bring it back later."

Um, a bag that looks like this one was probably NOT taken "by mistake":






It's not so much the bag itself -- though I am admittedly a little sentimental about it because it's the last of the US-made regular bags, AND it's a left-handed model (tough to find) that I got about nine years ago. What was inside is the bigger loss: a black and white composition book filled with four years' worth of notes and plans and stuff related to work; a second black and white composition book filled with notes from several years' worth of Torah and Talmud classes; and my calendar with all sorts of dates and phone numbers and stuff that I absolutely cannot remember unless I can refer to the book at least twice a week or more. Without the calendar, I'm screwed -- and will have to start over again in another calendar and hope I remember everything that was in the old one. As for the notebooks, they're both pretty much irreplaceable and both really, really important to me. Whatever else was in the bag -- a few small bike tools, a pocket knife, odds and ends and a couple of small bike parts -- doesn't matter. But the books do matter, and I'd like them back.

So if you're in Portland and you see this bag, please try to grab it and bring it to me at work (if you're in Portland you know where I work). Hopefully the stuff may still be inside, but I'm pretty much guessing that whomever took the bag took it for the bag and has dumped everything else out. The last time I had a bag stolen, it was a backpack from a desk job downtown. The bag was never found, but one of my notebooks was seen that afternoon floating in the Willamette River.

..::sigh::..

Nothing cosmic here. It's really, really annoying -- especially the part about losing those notebooks -- but really there's no bigger cosmic thing happening here and the loss of my bag is not some karmic reward for some way in which I screwed up last year or last week. God is not trying to tell me anything, and neither is any devil. Someone saw my bag, wanted it and took it. Period.

I rode around Old Town for about 45 minutes, just in case I could possibly spot my bag on someone's shoulder. Of course, the greater likelihood is that they left downtown as soon as they could and I'll probably never see the bag or its contents again. I'm really bummed.

If your the thief and you're reading this: thanks for nothing, jerk.

The quote from the Billy Joel song is about looking for something elusive and getting pulled down to the bottom of the sea in the effort. And what's happening at my favorite bike seller is an effort not to get pulled down into the swirl.

The Atlantis, Rivendell's last model from the late 90's, is going away. The frame was made in Japan by a small outfit called Toyo, and it was beautiful. It was also the object of my lust for the better part of a decade, even though I already have a custom-built Riv. The Atlantis was the PERFECT frame for doing it all: touring, commuting, rough-stuff, hauling trailers or even (heavens!) building up an Xtracycle unit and turning it into a cargo bike. And it did everything beautifully, with a not-quite-turquoise, not-quite-celeste color that turned heads wherever it went.

Here's one, built up:




And this is pretty much the kind of riding for which it was intended; load it up and ride away happy.

The Atlantis -- and Rivendell's other Japanese-built models, like the Quickbeam and Glorious/Wilbury -- are going away becase the dollar is looking downright anemic against the nearly-steroidal yen. With that kind of exchange rate, prices on these frames would have to go up to a point where almost nobody could afford them. So Rivendell, having no other sensible choice, got out before it got totally sucked under, and found a Taiwanese maker to build the next generation of Rivendell frames -- including the Hunkapiller, which will be something like the son of Atlantis (though with the now-common-at-Rivendell longer, sloping-upward top tube, not exactly. Maybe more like a nephew).

No pix of the new model yet but one can assume it will be well-made and plenty strong.

Meanwhile, I lament the loss of one of the best frame designs ever, especially because it means there's no longer a stock lugged frame option for 559 (26" atb) wheels. The Atlantis came out after I'd taken delivery on my Rivvy, but I never stopped loving it, or looking at cheaper ways to achieve the same ride quality and fit. And because I don't have $2,000 bucks sitting around (or a garage capable of holding six or eight bikes), I won't be trying to snap up the last Atlantis in my size. So if you can buy one, you should. Call Rivendell and snap up this beautiful frame if you can, because when it's gone there will be nothing else out there quite like it. (Then take lots of pictures of the build-up and be sure to share them with all of us in bikeland so we can ooh and ahh.)

I spent much of the afternoon swapping parts over to my new race bike:





I went for the Redline after realizing that (a) I was going to be more comfortable riding a mountain bike for both short-track and 'cross; and (b) I couldn't possibly find anything else this decent for so little money. (I swung a shop pro-deal to get it through my distributor.)

Parts swapped in include:

New -- brakes, grips, stem, bottom bracket, chainring and rear cog
Used -- handlebar, brake levers, cranks, pedals

Most items came from Stompy, Version 1.2, which I raced on this year and whose frame was a little small for me. This frame fits me better and although it will be slightly more challenging to carry on a 'cross course (the downtube is a little larger in diameter) it only weighs about a pound more than the Kona frame did. The extra weight is worth the better fit to me. Also, I can save a little weight by getting rid of the Convert kit; the new frame has the rear-facing dropouts of a dedicated singlespeed bike. (I will probably swap in enough used parts to make a the Kona complete singlespeed bike again, which someone will probably want to buy. I hope.)

I got a little stuck this afternoon when the factory-installed drive-side crank bolt simply would not budge, even after I applied a little oil and let it soak in for an hour. (What did they install it with, power tools?) If I can't move it tomorrow morning I'll take it to work and use the shop's larger leverage tool (and then I can remove the factory cranks and cartridge BB and install the external BB and hollowtech cranks I yanked from the Kona).

*************
I have this wild fantasy of saving up for a pair of -- sit down now! -- carbon fiber bash guards from Ruckus Components here in Portland. The thing that's keeping me from going there (and possibly damning my soul to hell in the process) is that Shawn's chain guards, while light and oddly beautiful, cost 80 bucks apiece. Yee-OWWCH!

Yeah, probably not gonna happen. But a gal can dream.
*************

The only bummer is the brakes.

The bike came stock with V-brakes, of which I'm not a huge fan. V-brakes stop well but they collect mud like an old-school Vibram hiking boot sole -- and are almost as hard to clean on the fly. So after reading up on low-profile and wide-profile options I tried a set of Avid Shorty-4's in front. The apex of the straddle cable hung well below the bottom of the fork crown, which was less than ideal to me. So off they came. In their place I set up some Tektro wide-profile cantis, which work very well -- but in the rear my heel strikes them while pedaling. Since they clear the fork crown in front when set up properly, I'm thinking I'll keep them on in front and swap in a set of low-profile cantis in rear -- and hope the apex of the straddle cable clears the bridge between the seat stays. If the brakes give me what I want and don't require me to change my pedaling style, I can live with mis-matched brakes front and rear. All I know is I really don't want to have to use a V-brake if I can help it.

Initial test-ride feels good. The bike fits me better than the Kona. The main triangle is a little taller, not so squat, which gives me leg room. It also allows me to move the saddle back a little more and get stretched out comfortably without overdoing it.

Meanwhile, I should have the drive-train fully swapped by end of day Tuesday and I'm excited to take this over to Woodlawn Park and play around on it next weekend.





More pix can be found at my Flickr page.

I skipped riding my bike on New Year's Day for the first time in many years. I was just too tired and underslept and it was pouring outside.

Waiting a day was the right thing to do. I enjoyed a mellow ramble through North and Northeast Portland and was rewarded by quiet streets, beautiful silhouettes of trees against a mostly sunny winter sky, balmy temperatures (I warmed up enough to remove my neck gaiter and gloves 20 minutes into my two-hour ride) -- and by scenes like this:


(looking west on North Vancouver Avenue, around 2:00 pm)




Glad I rode today. A really lovely way to begin my year on the bicycle.
Happy riding to all in 2010.

Back in January, I'd set a modest goal of riding 2,400 miles in 2009.

I fell short by about 12 miles.

Some of this may be attributed to mileage estimates made while riding my cyclocross bike, which is not fitted with a cyclometer; but mostly I think it's a pretty accurate indicator of my riding this year. I had spurts of greatness in a mostly ordinary year, and I think that's what happens when you don't plan on doing any really long rides. I didn't participate in a single Oregon Randonneurs event this year (the only populaire offered conflicted with my race at Barton Park). Since the end of my cyclocross season I felt a lingering fatigue that I haven't quite known how to deal with (except to use transit to shorten my trips more often).

So what's in the works for 2010? I remain dedicated to racing short-track and 'cross, and if time and finance permit I'd like to enter more of the short-track races than I did last year. I think I'm happy with the amount of 'cross racing I did and probably won't increase my participation there too much. However, I did "cat up" and in 2010 I will be racing in the Singlespeed categories in both disciplines. (Go ahead and say it -- I'm nuts. I know.) As for randonneuring, if there's a populaire offered on a weekend that dosn't conflict with my racing plans then I would like to ride at least one. I suspect this would have to be early in the season (say, Snoozeville).

Other observations:

1. I have been more inclined to utilize transit to shorten my commutes this year. I've also had more difficulty telling the difference between mental and physical fatigue. Is this just a part of aging? Or is it a side-effect of my working at a desk more during the day? In any event I would really like 2010 to be my last year in the Buyer's chair at Citybikes -- I'm feeling worried about the reduction in my activity at work and really desire getting back to a bench. I hope to have a successor trained and ready to take over in late November.

2. I started doing yoga with Sweetie and we like it. It's hard for me -- anything where I have to bend my knee very far back on itself is painful and I am oh so stiff and creaky -- but I like what it does for my head afterwards. Sweetie and I gave each other yoga mats for Chanukah this year and we are committed to doing yoga together at least 1-2 times a week. I'm told it will help me get stronger over time but at my degree of flexibility just now I'm a little dubious.

3. I would really like to learn how to train -- not to the point where it takes over my life, but enough that I can get stronger and perhaps not finish DFL in nearly every race. I like what racing is doing for me and want to keep at it, but I don't want to just dive in blind without a clue, or a plan. I especially want to figure out how to make this work with middle-aged spread and creaky joints, and with Crohn's. I just don't have the money to join a gym or hire a trainer. And without a real team presence here in town I am on my own pretty much all the time. I will remain affiliated with Velo Bella for 2010, and will reassess everything at season's end.

4. I really need to get more and consistent sleep! Since I have a partner this means discussing ways to get us both to bed at a decent hour so we're both better-rested.

5. The truth is that, while I like the spirit of randonneuring and have made some really great friends through my involvement in the sport, I have to admit I don't care for the fact that I am usually so slow that I end up riding almost the entire distance at an organized brevet alone. At races, I am surrounded by happy, cheering, very social folks. Being the social animal I am, I have to say I enjoy the atmosphere of racing more. That combined with my physical limitations means I am unlikely to ride anything longer than a populaire, and that is actually okay with me. I hope there will be at least one organized populaire to ride in 2010, but if there's not I will have plenty of racing and cargo-biking to keep me active.

*******

Total miles, 2009: 2,388.6 (3,845.6 km)
Weekly average: 46 mi/wk (this was skewed slightly by two weeks in which I rode less than 20 miles each and one week where I managed about two miles total.)

Goal for 2010: 2,500 miles.
See you on the road, and happy riding in 2010!

It's happening. Little electronic gadgets are finding their way into my life, inch by inch.

Not all of them, mind you. A cell phone that takes pictures, checks my email, does my taxes and manages my datebook is not high on my list. That said, I am finding that perhaps a tiny bit of creep may not always be a bad thing.

For instance, I just inherited Sweetie's iPod Nano. It came bundled with her laptop a few years ago and she found it useful for listening to podcasts while gardening or exercising. Recently, she upgraded to a full-size iPod and no longer needed the Nano. She asked if I would like to try using it. Before I could stop myself, I said yes. Today there's perhaps 45 minutes worth of music loaded onto it, and I recently picked up a set of ear-buds and an armband case for a total of four dollars. The point? Well, it's nice to listen to music when riding the bus. Music helps to diffuse the worst effects of 30 to 40 minutes of loud, belching diesel engine sounds. Another bonus -- and the reason for getting the armband case -- is to provide a soundtrack for when I utilize the Huffy trainer I scored for five bucks at a yard sale -- there are times when I will want to do some interval work this winter without subjecting myself to the elements. (Intervals will have to become part of my life if I want to get stronger for short-track next spring and summer.) Figuring out how to use it has taken some time but overall it's not bad. The biggest challenge so far has been deciding what to put on it. I have lots of CDs and it's just a question of taking time to stick the CD into my computer, transferring the songs I want into my iTunes file, and then "sync"-ing my computer and my Nano. Time-consuming but not impossible.

I think that's the biggest thing for me: the time it takes for me to get comfortable with the technology is probably the biggest issue I face. Maybe as I get used to the technology, learning how to use new pieces of equipment may take less time. I hope so. I don't want to waste too much of my time fiddling with stuff before I can simply USE it. In my humble opinion, tools should not require tons more time to learn than to use. I'd hate to see an hour of life slip away learning how to use something that takes only thirty seconds to utilize; and that prinicple has guided the electronic tools I've allowed into my life.

Next on the list MAY be -- sit down -- a cell phone of my own.

At present, Sweetie and I share a phone -- and so far the arguments have mostly been about who HAS to carry it, rather than who GETS to carry it. Last week, a situation arose where we both needed the phone at the same time and Sweetie's need won out. (I survived, but not having the phone did influence a slight change in plans that day.) Like I said, I'm not interested in a phone that does terribly much more than, well, make and receive phone calls. So I'm looking at models geared to the "Boomer" market -- for now, that mostly means folks older than me, since I'm at the youngest end of the Baby Boom and the oldest Boomers are now heading into their retirement years. I mostly want something easy to use, easy to program, and fairly bomb-proof -- ideally, something that folds in half so I don't accidentally dial it -- and something that lets me pay as I go, rather than locking me into a more expensive annual plan. I may  find what I'm looking for but there it is.

Readers who know of a good deal can contact me individually, and be sure to include useful links. Thanks.

I had signed up to ride a populaire permanent with friends, only to back out because I was flaring a bit and realized that 62 miles was simply too many miles for me to ride in one day just now. I'm listening to my body and staying close to home. Went to bed early last night and got a good night's sleep. Felt much better this morning (though not better enough to ride a 100k populaire, and I know I made the right choice in skipping it) and decided that a short neighborhood ride at a mellow pace wouldn't hurt me. In fact, getting out on my bike for even a short trip would probably hlp me from going crazy from too much inactivity. So I brought out the X (version 2.0) and took a short trip to my local branch of Far West Fibers to offload a little scrap metal and about six months' worth of plastics.

The Surly makes load-hauling easy.





The attendant was in a cheerful mood and quite happy to see someone bringing their recycleables on a bicycle. This led to a nice chat about bikes and how they will save the world, and while we talked I invited him to take an evidence photo before I unloaded my bike.





Afterwards I rode a lighter, sleeker Surly on an easy loop back home, stopping briefly at DiPrima Dolci on North Killingsworth for a black-and-white-dipped shortbread cookie. They have an excellent policy:





The whole trip, including the stop for the cookie, took less than an hour. It was near-freezing when I left the house and might have warmed up by a degree or two when I got home. There was leftover fog from last night and it had almost burned off by the time I left the bakery, to reveal a pale blue sky with that cold, hard winter light. I was riding pretty slowly most of the way there (so as not to wobble too much with the load), and rode faster to get home, but probably never exceeded ten to eleven mph. Got home with plenty of time for a hot lunch, a bubble bath and a nap. It was sort of like playing hooky, since I was off work today and am not scheduled to work again till Monday; but I am enjoying the mellowness of the day and the free time to honor my need for slowness and calm.

Tomorrow I'm meeting Pal Itai for Chinese food, which is what Jews the world over generally eat on Christmas. Whatever holiday you celebrate -- and whatever you eat -- enjoy.

In 2005, at my doctor's suggestion, I began keeping track of my mileage on the bicycle. She was impressed by how much I rode and thought that if I kept track of my mileage I might surprise myself -- and give myself a positive incentive while figuring out how to manage the symptoms of Crohn's. So I found an old, blank notebook and converted it into the first of my bike logs.

Since I began keeping track, I've logged a little over 11,000 miles (or roughly 17,700 km) to date. Averaged out over 4 1/5 years that comes to roughly 2,440 miles a year, though I actually rode more some years and less in others.

Along the way I also enrolled in the Canadian Kilometer Achiever Program, which offers a very nice, organized tally sheet to keep track of your kilometers ridden each year and optional lifetime distance awards. (For example, I have qualified for CKAP's Bronze medal for a total of 10,000 km ridden since I joined in mid-2005.) Membership is open to anyone who pays a small one-time processing fee and who submits annual distance tallies. The awards are not a huge deal, especially since I don't live in Canada and am nowhere near their annual banquet event in Toronto. Still, it's nice to note my progress and to compare myself with others in the program, which has been in existence since the late 1970's.

Although I've checked out various web sites and excel programs that help cyclists keep track of miles electronically, in the end I return to my hand-written logs. It's no slower to me than using an electronic format (in fact, I think the electronic format might take longer at first), but it does require a more careful, deliberate approach (after all, I'm doing the math and writing entries by hand); but I can record details about particular rides and even include longer essay reports of special rides if I choose. And there is something appealing about writing in my daily totals by hand, something that feels more physically connected to the miles I rode that day. Based on how much space my previous years' entries have taken up, I figure I've got room for one more year in my present log before I have to find another little notebook. Meanwhile, I am closing in on my goal of 2,400 miles for 2009. I'm close and I'm pretty sure I'll make it.

Happy riding.