Also, 30 Days of Biking is back for the early fall edition, looking to double numbers from this spring. Sign up at the website and track your days on twitter by using the #30daysofbiking tag.

Here’s the thing about September in Minnesota, people: this is by far the best time of year to ride a bike. Never mind the gritty bragging rights of winter cycling, the enthusiasm of the first rides of spring, the underwear rides of summer; September is where it’s at. The days are cooling off, so you can ride in short sleeves or long sleeves and not leave an unbroken trail of sweat behind. You can watch the leaves changing and the squirrels getting fat, make campfires and ride the quiet, dark streets at night. Trail riding is wonderful because the mud has dried up and the weeds are dying back and the cooler air is telling you to take another lap.

Go ride, get out before we all start complaining about the snow.

Biking pal Brother Yam had his Big Dummy stolen last night. Keep an eye out, it’s distinctive with the honey Brooks saddle, white Fat Frank tires and cork grips. It’s his main ride, his family cargo hauler, and he needs it back.

My youngest has really been wanting to go fishing lately, so last night we dusted off the poles (i got myself a license), and after an aborted trip to Como Lake (the weeds, my god man, the weeds!), we had a lovely time of it along the banks of the Mississippi. We didn’t get as much as a nibble, but she’s a natural both with the casting and the fishing trash talk.

“Hey Dad, did you bring a pan?”
“A pan?”
“Yeah, for all the big fish i’m gonna catch!”

This year, for the 2nd time in our 4 years, we had to resort to plan B. The last time it was flooded tracks that shut down the whole line for a couple of weeks, and this year we had the bad luck of riding the day after some torrential thunderstorms. It was dry when the 9 of us hearty fools assembled at the train station, but the storms had made the train 3 hours late, which put a wrench in our plans. So we hied ourselves a couple of blocks away to a lovely diner for a proper breakfast and planning session.

The last time we were derailed (ha!), we went to Red Wing and back, which is about the same distance and replicates about half of the route anyway. This time we opted to head east and north, leaving town with only a vague plan in that direction.

We arrived in Hudson and went north, regrouping outside of Stillwater. The vote was to make for Osceola to the north, so we forged on, picking our way on a route completely improvised by a committee sense of direction and the help of 2 iPhones. At one point we hit a dead end and opted to cross a highway and try out an ATV trail, which proved delightful.

We had a lovely repast at a bar in Osceola where we delighted our waitress with both our wit and our capacity to drink water. With only a couple of exceptions (aside from the off-roading) the 2-lane roads were delightful, and one stretch of road after we had crossed back into Minnesota was simply beautiful.

In another break with custom for these rides, we were home at a decent hour, by 10 for me. Although i rather miss the delightful night riding we usually have, i have to admit it was nice to be in bed before 4am. A good time with fine cyclists, and some really nice roads north of the cities that i’d like to explore again soon.

We’re also scheming to plan out a long ride that is exclusively (as much as possible) on ATV trails. Let me know if you’re interested, and especially if you know of a good map resource for ATV and snowmobile trails within 5 miles of the Twin Cities.

For sale: my 65cm Rivendell Redwood. It was Rivendell’s plainer (simpler lugs, one-color), upsized version of their Rambouillet frame, but sold only as a complete bike. The middle-of-the-bell-curve version was the Romulus. The frame was built by Toyo in Japan and features the same geometry as the Rambouillet with a slightly stouter downtube, and it was only available in the 65 or 68cm sizes and only in this lovely, shimmery green.

The bike has about 3,000 miles on it, I bought it new from Rivendell in October 2004. I’ve used it primarily for century and other long road rides, and relatively tame dirt/gravel roads. It’s never been crashed or used for heavy touring, no structural damage of any sort, and it’s never been structurally modified or repainted. It was also never ridden on salty streets during the winter. The small blemishes it has are from everyday wear; chain nicks on the right chainstay, some smudging on the left downtube decal, and a scratch on the stem where i had a bell mounted. There are minor scratches on the cranks, but i’ve mainly ridden it with clipless pedals. I’ve done normal maintenance as needed; it’s had a new chains, cables and a new rear tire, i retentioned and trued the wheels once when the bike was about a year old, and i rebuilt both hubs once. Everything is in great working order and cosmetically very clean.

The parts spec is mainly as original: Sugino triple crank, Shimano 105 group for hubs, bb, headset, brakes and derailers, dura-ace bar-end shifters, Araya RC-540 rims, 12cm Technomic Dlx stem, 46cm Nitto Noodle bars, Nitto 65 (aka Crystal Fellow) seatpost. I added the Ale cages and the SKS fenders. Front tire is a somewhat worn Ruffy Tuffy, the rear is a year-old Pasela, bars have a black & brown cloth tape diamond weave.

I’m most interested in selling the bike complete as-is in the photos, minus the cyclometer, saddle and pedals. I’m starting the listing at $1450 $1300 (new reduced price) plus actual shipping, and i’ll entertain reasonable offers. It would ship (if it must ship) in the original box (with new packing, i can have a shop pack it) and i should have the manual somewhere too. Let me know if you have any questions or want to see pictures of anything specific.

Update: a note on sizing and fit. I’m 6′4″, saddle height 83cm, PBH 93cm, and this bike as-built fits me perfectly with about a fistful of seatpost showing and the bars level with the saddle. This is the style of fit that Rivendell recommends, and you’ll be skeptical if you’ve been riding smaller bikes (in the parlance of our times), but it’s truly a super-comfortable fit that has let me ride multiple centuries (some 150 miles or more) with no bike fit-related issues (tiredness and leg cramps are not the frame’s fault). If you’re between about 6′2″ and 6′8″, measure your PBH and if it’s around 92-95cm, this’ll probably work well for you. Of course, it’s also available for test rides in St. Paul.

This little video is one of the best explanations i’ve seen to promote good riding techniques in traffic. It’s produced by Cycling Savvy, a program with the Florida Bicycle Association. They have collected a lot of great information on that website, good job.

The video shows clearly one of the biggest hurdles for many new commuters, and one of the biggest sources of stress while riding in traffic: finding a place to be on the road. Bicycle riders have full legal access to the roads, and yet many drivers (knowingly or not) intimidate cyclists who are trying to ride those roads. Fear of being “in the way” of motorized traffic makes the cyclist constantly compromise their road position and although the compromise position can feel the least stressful, it’s often also the least safe.

(Don’t bother with the sidewalk argument, bikes (at least for able riders over about 12) don’t really belong there. It’s patently unsafe for the cyclist, drivers and pedestrians alike. So, we’re riding in the street. A quick link to the Minnesota Traffic Laws as they pertain to bicycles is in order. I’m also talking about the vast majority of roads that don’t have a proper bike lane and where there’s no viable independent bike path.)

Once you’re in the street, you’re dealing with widely varying road conditions (cracks, potholes, broken bits that fell off of cars) and traffic. Riding a bicycle with cars going past faster than you can ride is a very uncomfortable situation, and one you can’t fully appreciate unless you’ve done it. I firmly believe that we’d be better off requiring all drivers to spend a week cycling everywhere for their transportation, but i digress. You naturally don’t want to be near cars, so you ride on the edge of the road, or the gutter, which adds the stress of reduced lateral margin plus the accumulation of all the dirt and garbage that collects in that space of the road.

Riding on the shoulder is fine as long as there’s enough shoulder for cars to pass safely. A safe pass is legally defined as a 3-foot margin around the overtaken vehicle (the bicycle in our case being the vehicle). As clearly shown in the animation above, when there isn’t at least three feet of space around the cyclist, a car will try to ’sneak by’ with minimal passing space while staying in their own lane. Countless times i’ve had this happen to me when riding too far to the right. It’s like drivers forget how to change lanes, or fear to do it.

The solution is to ride fully in the lane. This way the driver has to choose a lane; they have to either pass or slow down. They may honk, at which you wave and smile and continue on your way. It feels presumptuous to do this as a cyclist, but it’s truly the safest thing to do. You’re removing the bad compromise option of letting the car get by without a lane change and making the lane decision a binary one, as it is for all motorized road users. This lane or that one, period.

Don’t be a dick about it, of course – if there’s a widening in the road and a couple of cars behind, try to let ‘em by. Do unto others, and all that. But especially if you’re on a 4-lane road and there’s no shoulder, that right lane should be all yours. Plant those tires in the right car tire track and ride on, friend. In Minnesota, where i live, using a full lane also gives you the very necessary ability to wind around potholes and other road hazards without weaving in and out of traffic.

The nutshell for all of this to remove ambiguity in traffic. Ambiguity is one of the biggest problems with cycling safety in traffic. When drivers complain that cyclists are breaking the rules of the road (because they all run red lights and stop signs!), it’s often the entirely realistic fear of a collision. When a cyclist and one or more drivers both approach a 4-way stop, say, the legal and rational expectation is that both parties will at least slow toward a stop to see who will get clear priority to proceed, just as you’d expect if it were all cars. When the cyclist doesn’t stop, or at least slow enough to make their place in line obvious, the likelihood of a crash and stress for everyone increases greatly. It’s worth saying that likewise when the driver tries to be nice and wave the cyclist through, they’re contributing to the problem.

I could see doing something like this when the kids are grown up, though i’d probably double the size of the place just to have a workshop.

We are all very proud of her, and she is very excited for first grade this fall.

The big finale of the series was John Hodgman, who i love, but i wasn’t able to make it to the show. Happily, MPR did a video stream of the entire show, and that is now available on their website, so i did get to see the whole thing, just a bit delayed. It was a great show, as expected, and they had Neil Gaiman onstage and Hodgman read from David Foster Wallace (who is another favorite) and their musical guest was John Roderick.

I don’t know what cave i’ve been living in to not have heard of John Roderick and his band The Long Winters, but wow am i glad i heard that show. He’s the real fucking deal songwriter. I’ll be heading out to collect his back catalog shortly.

The song he played at Wits is a new one for the new album he’s been working on for over a year now, maybe two, and the song is called Not Moving To Portland. It’s one of those deceptively complex songs with some simple chords and really interesting phrasing and a good story to tell all at once. Doing a little digging to hear more of his stuff, i stumbled upon the following recording of the song from the beginning of this year:

It was recorded for a Seattle arts fundraiser, and the video is pretty cool, but i noticed that the lyrics are a little different than the version i’d heard. Here’s the Wits show, jump to about 40 minutes in to get to the song intro (though the whole show is good):

The arrangement is slightly different, with Munson’s bass rather than backing vocals, but the lyrics are also changed, making the storyline stronger and more personal. And it was a fine song before, top 95%, but i like the newer one better. What grabbed me on the first listen was Roderick’s big voice ringing out on the chorus and how the verses sort of dance around the phrasing of the 3-chord repeat. It’s a beautifully constructed song. I wonder if it’s done, or if he’ll tweak it again before the album is released.