a midway bikelog

The whole topic of how to ride a bike in traffic is a bit of a loaded and polarizing question, much like topics like helmets and brakes on fixies. While there are wildly divergent opinions on whether or how differently cyclists should follow current traffic laws, i’m mostly going to look at one piece that most experienced cyclists (especially bike commuters) almost unanimously agree on: taking the lane. What follows will either be preaching to the choir or maybe a little insight on the psychology of cycling.

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 totally understand the impulse for this sort of downsizing:

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.

It actually happened a couple of weeks ago now, but some pictures of Fiona at her kindergarten graduation:

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

John Moe of Minnesota Public Radio created this series of shows called Wits, where he and musical guide John Munson have a writer and a musical guest and they’d talk about a topic with sidetracks and fun. I went to the second show with George Saunders, who i’d never read before, and had a great time, very smart and funny guy. Mike Doughty was the musical guest, and that was fun too, as i’d seen Soul Coughing play but not him solo.

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.

Yesterday i completed my second gravel century of the year yesterday at the inaugural Westside Dirty Benjamin race. It was an interesting contrast to the Almanzo 100 race i finished last month. Of course 100 miles on mostly gravel roads is nothing to sneeze at, but while the extra challenge at the Almanzo was the hills, for the WSDB it was the wind.

As with the Almanzo, i met many friends at the race start, obviously an indication of my high caliber friends and our collective warped sense of cycling fun. Weather was perfect: partly cloudy and mid-60s heading for the mid-70s, but it was the wind gusts near 20mph that caused trouble. The first half of the race had a series of turns that each put us into a different sort of headwind but only one short respite from it.

I was feeling pretty lousy for the first 10-15 miles frankly, having been mostly off of the bike for the month since the Almanzo race. It was tough to ride into the wind, working harder than i should for a measly 10mph. The maddening thing about the wind, of course, is that unlike a long climb you can’t see the end of it. I did a better job eating and drinking early and often, but the nonstop push into the wind and the lack of recent training brought back the threat of thigh cramps and i had to back off even further and spin more.

Since i had too much food along for Almanzo, i traveled lighter for the WSDB and got lunch at a grocery store in Watertown. It would have been faster and cheaper to use the drop bag service at the checkpoint, but i wasn’t organized enough before the race to get it together. I just got whatever smelled and looked good at the store and ended up eating 2 Chester’s deli chicken breasts and chocolate milk, which was declared “hilarious” by my friend Jana at the checkpoint park. Hilarious, but delicious, and worked fine for the rest of the ride.

A couple of miles after the checkpoint i got to outrun the only dog that chased during the day. Surprising, given that at least 70 riders had passed by then, probably a good workout for that old black lab, but i was fresh enough from the break to outsprint it.

Miles 55-90 were the best of the race for me. After fighting the headwind and generally feeling unsettled on the bike through the first half of the race, i finally found a good rhythm and the miles seemed to float right by. The tailwind we had for most of the second half certainly helped, riding along much more easily at 15-18 most of the time but still soft-pedaling to keep the cramps at bay.

The last dozen miles of gravel were a little soft, hard to find a good line on, and i was getting a little sore and tired. The race was actually 106.5 miles, but the final 6 miles or so were all asphalt, lovely and smooth, with a tailwind and rolling hills. It felt like a gift to finish the ride with a handful of fast miles like that. I finished in about 9:15; just over my Almanzo time but not bad considering the wind and my lack of training.

Great work by organizer Martin Rudnick along with Karyn and the rest of the crew who put on an excellent race. There were post-race beers and delicious pulled pork sandwiches from King’s Bar and a nice choice of schwag. The highlight of the little bit of post-race time i had to hang out was watching the unicyclist Dan come in to the finish. 106.5 miles on a 36″-wheeled unicycle, simply amazing.

This was the second trp to Alaska for my dad, brothers and me, the last time being 4 years ago but further north, in the Kenai Penninsula. We wanted to see a different part of the state, plus while we had great halibut fishing in Homer and excellent salmon fishing in Soldotna, staying in SItka allowed us to fish for multiple things from one home base, so we spent less time driving cross-country.

We all met up in Seattle then flew north together. We fished with Frontier Charters, and they were great. They picked us up at the airport and let us use a van for the first couple of days we had before we fished, and we had a good time exploring the sights in and around town. Sitka is on beautiful Baranof Island, surrounded by little islands and filled with mountains and dense forests. Fishing is the main attraction to the area, but the hiking and biking is also wonderful.

One of our first stops on Monday was a nice whale watching park just outside of town. It was low tide, and we had a nice little hike among the rocks.

We had a couple of days to do some sightseeing before our fishing started, so we explored town, did a little hiking and exploring the trails outside of town and took a glass-bottom boat tour to see some of the sea life along the coast.

We fished 2 days and did very well with the salmon (20-30 lb kings, one coho) and rockfish, got a couple of nice lingcod inside the slot limit, and a couple of nice yelloweye too. The halibut fishing was unusually slow, but Mike and John each hauled up a smaller one on the first day. The rockfish action was nonstop while we were over the reef, pretty much as fast as you could drop a line and pull it up.

A fantastic trip, beautiful country and great guys to hang out with.

Beautiful.

(via kottke.org)

This weekend i rode and finished one of the hardest and most fun races in my life: the Almanzo 100. It’s a 100 mile race on gravel roads in southern Minnesota, masterfully and stylishly organized by Chris Skogen. Chris doesn’t know me from anybody, other than maybe as another Twitter follower and my very plain entry card, but when i picked up my race packet Friday night he introduced himself, and when i introduced myself as Bill, he knew my last name though he wasn’t even working the table. Class act.

There’s no entry fee, you just carefully consider whether you will really attempt riding 100 miles of gravel in mid-May and mail in a post card sometime during January. This year over 400 mailed cards, about 4x last year’s field. 268 of the starters finished.

Here’s a map of the course as it worked out (and note the 6,900 feet of climbing!), but nobody knew the course before packet pickup, and then only 2/3 of it. The race packets are super cool:

The packet is in a block stamped and embossed (you can see this on the flap) envelope, with name typed at the top, and includes (clockwise from top-left) an embroidered patch, post card, invitation to a ride in the fall, personalized note, a separate map for the rider’s support crew (if they have one), sponsor list, and the cue sheet for the first leg of the race, in four parts. Not shown: race number. The route cue sheets were excellent. There are 75 items for the whole course with the various turns and notes, but there was never a question of getting lost as long as you had the sheet and a working cyclometer. It would be awfully hard to not show up to a race when there’s a hand-written note to you in the packet. I’m just sayin’.

The race starts and ends at the high school in Spring Valley, a lovely town about 20 miles south of Rochester (home of the race for the first 3 years). I camped out the night before at nearby Forestville State Park and awoke early for a proper breakfast at Big Bob’s Eatery in downtown Spring Valley. The field congregated for the 9am start with the best weather forecast possible: light wind, high in the low 70s(F) and clear skies.

I rode my usual commute and cyclocross bike, a Surly Crosscheck, set up exactly as i normally commute on it, except i added gears (8-speed) and a handlebar bag. It worked perfectly, not a single problem, not even a flat the whole ride. I also carried a camelback for my main water supply, as restocking options along the route were slim.

I started about 1/2-way back in the pack and still managed to push too hard through the first 40 miles. I had a great 15.5 mph average through this despite (and partly thanks to) the hills, but paid for it later with bouts of cramping in my thighs. My usual tendency to push big gears doesn’t work well over about 50 miles, at least not without better training.

The entire course was hilly, which made for some thrilling and occasionally sketchy descents. My top speed for the day was 41 mph, and many of them were in the 28-35 mph range. I couldn’t even count ‘em, there were a lot of bloody hills. The very first big descent of the day was likely the source of my top speed, and also the location of the first big crash of the day, taking down probably 8-10 riders on a sweeping turn. Happily, no crashes for me, but a couple of close calls.

We passed the town of Preston at 38 miles in, but i decided not to stop there, though i later realized that a water refill would have helped some. I was pushing a little too hard, but i was also feeling pretty good and didn’t feel like stopping just yet. By the time i got to the checkpoint at mile 64 to pick up my drop bag, i had worked through a round of cramps, just finished my initial supply of water, and was ready for a break.

The Checkpoint was at a historical old town in Forestville park that i’d like to go back to see again sometime. No facilities, but a nice spot to sit and eat and rest a bit. I sat a little longer than i probably should have, but my legs were feeling much better when i got back on the course.

This part of the state is really beautiful, and one of the tensions i had during the ride was between trying to focus on finishing at a reasonable time and wanting to take lots of pictures. I didn’t take many pictures at all, but this one i couldn’t pass up, with the open meadow and road following a lovely little stream.

One fun feature was the water crossingat mile 80, which turned out to be about a 15′ wide creek crossing with ~4-6″ rocks on the bottom. Many walked across the rocks, some removed shoes and socks to wade across, i decided to ride it. I didn’t give it much thought, but chose the shorter-looking side and paid for it when i rode into a hole that put water halfway to my knees. I stopped right at the far shore, so i didn’t totally clean it, but was happy to have made it through. Unfortunately, this meant riding the last 20 miles with wet feet, as i’d forgotten to put my spare socks in my bike bag.

After the leg cramps around mile 55, my riding changed quite a bit. Much less charging the hills, no more low-rpm cruising; much more spinning and lower gears and walking the hills – anything to keep the legs happily working. The strategy worked well, and though the race portion of my brain twinged a little when people passed me by, the rest of me was enjoying the ride a lot more. The hills continued apace right to the last couple of miles and the re-entry into town. I finished at about 9 hours even, 7:51 of that moving with the bike.

Update: i’m officially finisher #213, 9:01:08.

A note about the race sponsors too, they not only provided lots of cool schwag and prizes for racers, but many of them were also participating in the race themselves. One or more of the owners of Hiawatha Cyclery, Banjo Brothers, King’s Bar, Capricorn Cycles, Rawland Cycles, and Cars-R-Coffins were on the course (and possibly others that i missed). This is a big part of why Minnesota cycling is so great.

Final tally:
100 miles ridden
164 ounces of water, 2 bottles of chocolate milk, 1/2 lb of almonds, 4 oz of homemade granola, 4 oz of cheese, 2 oz of summer sausage consumed
0 crashes, injuries, mechanical problems, wrong turns

Casualties:
1 pair of cycling gloves (shredded during the race)

Notes for next year:
1. Carry less food, more water. Stop at Preston for a quick refill. Put more food in the drop bag.
2. More hill training. Natch.
3. Lower gearing from the start. Add a second chainring for the big hills.
4. Get the Banjo Bros map holder and bring one bike bag plus the Camelback.
5. Take more pictures, spend more time riding with people.

Many thanks to Chris and his crew for a great race. Many things to family and friends who helped make it possible for me to do it. Many of my friends were there too, and it was great to chat and ride with them during the day. The town of Spring Valley was very accommodating and friendly, i definitely want to go back for another visit and more riding. And of course, for next year’s race.

Update: I didn’t mention the multi-bike crash on the first big descent of the course. I came through a few minutes after it happened, and i stopped to see if everyone was ok and everyone was well-attended, so i moved on to get out of their way. I heard later of a concussion and ambulance trip for one rider, and it turned out to be Skibby, who documented the aftermath on his blog. That was a nasty-looking crash, get well soon!

Here’s a good recount by cornbread of what it was like to ride in the lead group for the race. The winners averaged nearly 20mph over the whole course – my average for the first 40 was only 15mph, it got slower after that.

So a couple or more years ago, we had a new editor at work (it’s a textbook publisher) who seemed cool, rode his bike to work once in a while, did some writing of his own, but this job wasn’t his thing, and he moved on after a while. My job isn’t all that close to home, so it was a pleasant surprise to learn he also lived in my neighborhood. And even though i don’t see him that often, we’re both on Twitter and sorta stayed connected in that bloggy way, and i learned that he’s written quite a few chapter books and was working on his first young adult novel, which is a pretty big deal. His name is Steve Brezenoff, the novel is called The Absolute Value of -1, and it’s coming out this September with Carolrhoda but you can see a little trailer for the book now: