How to break in a Brooks saddle

It's happened. And, I can't be more excited. My Brooks saddle is finally broken in. How did I do it? I rode it for 10 months, 3 weeks and 5 days. I'm not sure if this is a normal time period - but the honey-colored leather definitely took longer to break in than my black leather one.

It was definitely a watershed moment for me.

Great Things About Riding in DC: Fireflies

One of the charming aspects about summer riding in DC, and probably throughout the East Coast, is firefly season.  Lasting from roughly late May through mid July, many species of firefly larvae gestate into their adult form for what appears to be a mass firefly rave.  After two years of pupal squirming, the fireflies look to their remaining two weeks of life as their one and only chance to mate, and lay some eggs.  

To the casual human observer, this all means pretty blinking ethereal lights between dusk and dawn.

Having spent the past decade predominantly in the Western U.S., I was cheerfully reminded of nature's light show a few weeks ago while riding home.  Hovering before me on my night ride through Rock Creek Park were thousands of fireflies, creating a slightly psychedelic sensation as I rode down the narrow forested path.  It is somehow comforting to see these little flashes of brilliant light amidst the canopied darkness.

Their numbers seem to be slowly dwindling, perhaps they will follow the diminishing daylight as harbingers of fall.  I hope they stick around a little while longer.  And I hope that you, dear reader, are so lucky to see them illuminating your way on a night ride sometime soon.

Credit to this New York Times article for reminding me of the uniqueness of this wonder of nature.

BTWD

So, it's been awhile since I posted anything, but in honor of bike to work day, I am going to give a shout out.
I have been commuting anywhere from 4-30 miles roundtrip since I moved to Denver. Much of this commuting involves trips to the University of Denver where I am a grad student. I study psychology, which means I see clients in a clinic on campus on a nearly daily basis. There are no lockers, cubbies or other areas in which to store personal belongings throughout the day (except the fridge, but they get upset when they find bike shoes or helmets in there).
My work involves looking professional, among other things. As we all know, it is possible to bike in a skirt (thanks Karen), but it's just not for me. I get sweaty and find that I have to make more trips to the dry cleaners if I wear my fancy clothes, than if I just change when I get there. Also, twenty miles in 90 degree heat makes for a sticky situation when under rayon or other "fancy" materials.
So, my commute involves schlepping a large messenger bag around with me, often including several meals/snacks, shoes, clothes, water bottle, books for school and odds and ends.
The other day, the clinic director noticed my large bag and commented on its presence. I informed him that I change, on average, three times daily in his clinic and sometimes get puzzling looks from clients as they notice the pile of belongings, topped with a helmet, in the corner of the therapy room. He leaned in close and said "Let me see what I can do."
Three days, and two emails, later, I now have a key to the only locker at the Graduate School of Professional Psychology. It's an unused storage closet and it has a nice master lock on it. And it's all mine. The news came today, on Bike To Work Day (the only day of the year there are more than four bikes parked outside my building at any given time), and I couldn't be happier. The clinic assistant and director handed me the key and said "We will do whatever we can to support your noble cause."
I don't need praise or applause for my commute, I do it because I like it and somehow I think I'm doing my part for the Earth. It is, however, REALLY nice to now have a locker.
So, with great pleasure, I salute the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of Denver for their bike-friendly (to me) attitude.

Healing Wheels Bike Tour - pic and recap

Aside from RAGBRAI, this was the first real, organized ride I've ever been a part of (and surely not my last). It was so official, we pinned numbers to our jerseys and received swag bags from the sponsors. First class ride and support. Kudos to the key players who put this on for the benefit of the Inner City Health Center.

The metric century started at Bandimere Speedway and continued through Dinosaur Ridge, Red Rocks Park, Shadow Mountain, Idledale, Kittridge and the Brook Forest Inn. It was a beautiful route and probably one that I wouldn't have known about otherwise. On a sidenote: this route produced some of the most grueling terrain I have ever ridden. My training, consisting of Lookout Mountain and High Grade road, did not fully prepare me for approx 17% grade during a sections of Shadow Mountain.

Here's the route:


Andrew and I going up Dinosaur Ridge.



Descending Red Rocks:

False summit at Shadow Mountain. We thought we were pretty awesome until we realized we had another climb to the real summit:

The best Aid Station of all time was at this beautiful church outside Evergreen. Just down the road is where we saw some white buffalo:


Home stretch. Nick gives his look of approval:

All in all it was an amazing ride: very scenic and challenging. And the best part: all the proceeds went to the Inner City Health Center. Next year, you should come.

Thunderstorm Racing

I'm developing a new ad hoc sport that just might become the rage this summer.  Thunderstorm racing.  With disturbing frequency, DC has been hit by late day Thunderstorms, usually starting sometime between 4:30 and 8:00.  Pretty much every day, I leave work somewhere in that window.  

Lately, the trend has been to look up from my computer at my window somewhere in this timeframe.  I look at the brick wall across the alley (no corner office for me yet), and notice that it looks very much like it did in the winter months.  With some simple calculus, I determine that this appearance is due to the darkening clouds overhead.  I cannot see the sky directly, so I get up and walk down the hall to a window overlooking L street.  From here, my suspicion is confirmed, it usually looks like hell is about to break loose outside.  I then briskly walk around the office, warning my fellow bike commuters that it looks like hell, and they'd better leave if they want to make it home dry.  My duty done, I head back to pack up and begin my own race.

At this point, you have two choices, run for it and try to make the 20 minute ride home before the skies open up, or sit tight for an hour or three more at work until there is a clear spell.  The latter no longer appeals to me, so I've been opting to race the past few weeks.  Today I actually made it before the clouds broke loose, and made it to a dinner engagement on time and mostly dry.  

Yesterday was a different story, however.  I made it to the bottom of the hill at 18th and Florida before the lightning and thunder were matched with commensurate down pour.  This only makes the race more intense, since I always falsely believe that I can somehow minimize my exposure to the elements by pedaling as fast as possible.  I was doing just that, and had finally made it to within a half mile of home, and the relative safety of a bike lane when I had a close encounter with another cyclist.

He too was racing through the storm, on a vintage Raleigh no less.  I had to slam on my brakes to avoid the car pulling into the bike lane in preparation for a right turn.  The Raleigh rider also slammed on his brakes, but the half inch of water we were riding through had other ideas about allowing his old brakes to work properly.  Unaware of the drama behind me, I was a bit surprised when I was hit from behind, not injury hard, but "what the hell" hard.

The guy was very apologetic, and made sure to blame the rain and his brakes.  I rolled my rear wheel through a revolution, and it was still true (Scott Taylor at Salvagetti's is a great wheel builder, btw).  I told the guy, "no harm, no foul", and rode off, seeking no further delays while the rain was still going strong.

I'm actually somewhat appreciative of the guy who hit me.  The occasion compelled me to do a quick check-up on my bike, and I discovered a crack on the left crank arm where the spindle puts a pressure point on the downstroke.  I'm sure it should be replaced before I blow it up on a climb, or other high torque enterprise, though I'll just ride gingerly for now.

So long story short, racing a brooding thunderstorm is fun, exciting, and can lead to unanticipated results, like being thorough at bike maintenance.  If clouds are thickening, and you are about to leave work, I highly recommend it.

Now That's A Bike Path

This weekend, the DC area had the grand opening of the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge bicycle/pedestrian path. Karen and I decided to skip the first day it was open (pictured below), and ride it today when it would be a little less crowded. Our first impression: Awesome, grade A work.



A couple observations on the new Southernmost bike connection between Virginia and MD. It's 12 feet wide, giving plenty of space to pass three wide groups and looky loos. It has three carve out areas to stop, sit, and enjoy a great view of the city. It has a soundwall near the Alexandria side that allows you to have a conversation without the roar of traffic. On the Maryland side, it's got a great spiral ramp similar the the one in Denver connecting the Highlands to Platte St, but with an extra loop, making it super fast and fun. There are lots of signs and informational displays to read. The landscaping is excellent.

If you are in the DC area, I highly recommend taking the trip down there, if only to see it. For the meantime, I think the best commuter benefit is it allows anyone in Alexandria to ride easily to National Harbor, and vice versa. In the long run, I hope Maryland does as good a job as Virginia in building trail networks, it could really help the area develop as a bike friendly quadrant of the metro area.

T-Storm Season

Karen called me at work at about 5:40 to tell me the skies looked pretty dark to the West, and that I ought to think about heading out of work ASAP if I wanted to beat the storm.  I consulted with the great interweb service, weather.com, which informed me that at 6:30, the region would be pummeled by thunderstorms, preceded by light rain.  I got my stuff, computer included, and headed out the door, intent to beat the weather, and planning on finishing final emails of the day from home.

Wheeling out of the new bike cage (yes! my building put in a new Dero rack, and built a bike cage around it one day while my bike was parked there) the rain was light, as described by Weather.com, but that lasted all of a quarter block.  The skies opened up and let loose.  I commiserated with my fellow bike commuters on Connecticut (lots of us these days), and we agreed we had all made wise decisions, since it was only supposed to get worse in thirty minutes.

Hammered up the hill, storm worsening.  Thunder peals and lightning flashes growing closer, starting at six "bananas" away, and nearing to three "bananas" away.  I could feel water pouring off my bag and soaking my waistline, and simultaneously hoped the two pouches in between the exterior and my work MacBook would hold out another 10 minutes until I got home.  I started tasting salt, and couldn't figure out where it was coming from.  I wasn't riding hard enough to sweat, they hadn't salted the roads since March, so that ruled out spray.  Then it became clear, it was the built up salt from my helmets padding running down my face and into my mouth.  This is why I don't share helmets, I could at least be sure it was my own former sweat.

I got home with the downpour slightly lessening.  By the time I put the bike away, got the computer away from the wet bag, and took off my wet clothes for the illustrative picture below, the rain had lightened even more:

It's about as wet as I've gotten in quite a while, to the point where I could wring out socks and pantlegs.  

All in all, I had a blast and enjoyed every second of my ride home.  Not that I want this every day, but once in a while, it's great to get soaked unexpectedly.

BikeDenver Metric Century - 5/30

BikeDenver is hosting its 4th annual Denver Metric Century on Saturday, May 30th. Ride Denver’s best paths with core members of BikeDenver. We'll meet at 9am in Wash Park. Then we’ll explore Cherry Creek, Highline Canal and the Platte River paths.

Experienced riders will be at the front, middle, and rear. We obey the laws and stop at all crossings, making sure that no one gets dropped, and all have a pleasant ride.

Includes a lunch stop and a “social conclusion” at the Vive Street Pub on 17th.

Contact bikerossmiller@gmail.com to RSVP or to ask questions.

Rides of Silence, & Otherwise

This Wednesday I picked up a cycling buddy and drove out to Virginia Beach for the Ride of Silence going on there. I felt like a poser for driving to a bicycle event, but that shit is far, and through many un-enjoyable areas. I'll ride forever through safe, pretty, semi-quiet streets, but Virginia Beach doesn't have any of those things in abundance.

The Ride of Silence is "a silent slow-paced ride (max. 12 mph/20 kph) in honor of those who have been injured or killed while cycling on public roadways." It takes place all over the country and was started in 2003 after a cyclist was killed by a school bus mirror. By word of mouth 1,000 cyclists showed up to a memorial ride. The creator thought it would be a one time deal, however the idea caught on and now hundreds of locations across the country join in.

I've never done one of these before and knew only that we'd be rolling slow and that we weren't supposed to talk. I figured it'd be hard not to talk in a group ride, but before we started instructions were given to ride single-file and that definitely made it easier. If you've ever tried to talk to someone on a bike riding single file you know how frustrating it is.

They had black armbands for all of the riders but we showed up only a few minutes before the start and they had already run out. We signed a consent form, donned our helmets (my friend had brought one just in case; I don't think they would have let him ride without it) and were off. Despite the fair number of cyclists obviously shaky from a winter season sans-cycling or planted on indoor trainers we got into single file and out on the busy road without incident.

Our route was about 13 miles along quick and busy roads that show up as thick yellow lines in Google Maps instead of the thin white ones of smaller streets. The shoulder was clean and wide almost the entire distance and besides a tandem bike taking a spill very early on and getting split up by traffic lights there weren't any problems. The weather was perfect and the scenery was surprisingly pretty.

No one honked or asked us what we were doing (at least not in my end of the line) but one young woman did yell, "I looove bikes!" as a full car sped by. The pace stayed nice and slow and many different types of cyclists showed up, from shaved-legged serious types to people on cruisers and commuter bikes. A lot of people came out in full race kit looking ready to race, which I thought was a bit silly for a 10mph memorial ride.

I get bored easily, and the slow pace and silent cyclists got to me. I spent my time experimenting with different settings and strap configurations for my newly acquired camera to see what worked best for on-bike photography. I took 100 pictures and only kept about 17. Figuring out how to keep the camera attached to my body but still have the ability to move and point it wherever I needed was interesting. I didn't come to any definite conclusions, although I did get some awesome pictures of the ground, my hand, and a couple of my face where you could see perfectly up my nose and not much else.

Besides that, my buddy and I appeared to be the only fixed-gear riders in the crowd and found ourselves turning the whole ride into a subtle foot down contest. Track stands at stoplights during a memorial ride could seem a little inappropriate, but it broke up the oppressive atmosphere, at least for me. I know we were taking part in a kind of bicyclist's funeral procession, but I'm a firm believer that if you're doing something un-fun on a bike you're doing something seriously wrong. And if I were one of the faceless fallen friends the ride was meant to honor I'd want people to be enjoying time on their bikes, not trudging along all serious and emo with "Needle in the Hay" playing in their heads.

Once we got back to the starting point armbands were collected and people disbanded without much to-do. One of the riders (who was an elderly gentleman in full matching spandex and was at the front of the procession) yelled that if we were going to ride in a turn lane we'd have to stop and wait for traffic to pass before we could get back into traffic. He seemed upset. And that was basically it, no hanging out, no story sharing, no goodbyes. Maybe I'm used to my group rides being like Critical Mass and alley cats, but this thing was just blah. I don't want to talk smack about what I think is a lovely idea, but I won't be doing this again next year.

In more succinct and upbeat cycling news, the weather here has been awesome and I'm forming tan lines and getting used to the heat already. We had ourselves a bike race recently and for the first time I was the first one across the finish line, which felt rather awesome. A lot of cyclists are out and about and I've gotten over my grumpiness concerning them, at least for now. My kid is due any day now (Monday is the actual due-date) but already I'm looking at bike seats for him or day dreaming about riding around in the sun with him in one of those sling thingies. More on that as it develops.

Have a safe Memorial Day weekend, ride a lot!

- David

Bike to Work Day!

Once a year, cyclists get a day of recognition, and in most of the lower 48, that day is today. Among the cognoscenti, it can be cause for derision with many new bike commuters dusting off their wheels and taking to the streets and paths for transportation for the first time as adults. This morning, my colleague Stephanie at Complete Streets while on her way to Freedom Plaza overheard a messenger grumbling "Bike to work day can suck my balls".

I don't think that messenger is appropriately appreciative of the best part of this fine day, all the free stuff. Perhaps it is because for every minor alleycat, Chrome, PBR, and anyone seeking to co-opt messenger culture hands out free product, but for the average commuter not enmeshed deeply into bike culture, the freebies come mostly on Bike to Work Day.

Here is what I picked up in between booth babe duties for Transportation for America at Freedom Plaza:



SmartWool gets top honors for their handouts. They were giving away 2 for 1 sock coupons, clip on 3 LED tail lights (including Chinese made PowTek batteries warning "May Explode or Leak Causing Personal Injury") and the best of all, they gave people on booth babe duty their choice of a pair of PhD socks or their new wool arm warmers (I took arm warmers).

ZipCar had a promo for $10 for a year of membership, which I signed up for immediately (normally it is $75), and they gave me an aluminum bottle and recycled pen for the trouble.

The Swiss continue their campaign to push their culture on us by handing out slap bracelet pant retention devices and choco-biscuits.  I did rely on their generosity when I realized I needed to cut some twine to hang my banner, and my new friend Markus conveniently had (of course) a Swiss Army knife in his pocket.

Whole Foods was a big let down, offering only a coupon book that you can get in the front of the store any time you go, and a recipe card for Arctic Char.

I would have been satisfied with a whole fish, or even some fillets or steaks, not a recipe.

The organizers also provided water bottles, t-shirts and general good vibes. Mayor Fenty committed a bad faux pas by conspicuously wearing a Cycle Life polo shirt and hat to an event sponsored by City Bikes.  I was a little surprised, and I can only imagine what his sponsorship deal must look like to compel him to appear in an official capacity at a bike event dressed in their garb (Note to self: If can't get sponsored because too slow, get elected instead).

The crowd was mostly commuters, and if there is one trend worth noting, it is that all the federal bureaucracies are producing their own kits these days.  I saw US EPA and USDA represented by multiple jerseys, and I am aware of NASA and NOAA kits as well.  I can't wait until HUD comes out with one, I'm soooo there.  A few crazies showed up, easily identifiable by their "recumbant" bicycles, or the giant white rhinoceros carapice one of them had crafted for the top of his tricycle.

All in all, a day to be appreciated.  Colorado, you are due in about a month.

Bike To Work Week Everywhere but Colorado

For those living at altitude, it is bike to work week everywhere else, and tomorrow is Bike to Work Day. The reasons for this scheduling conflict are summed up by several posts from a year ago marveling at the volume of snowfall still common in early May.

For the rest of the country, however, spring is in full, and nothing makes a cyclist more excited to embrace the coming months on two wheels as a Chrome bag full off free stuff. Though I don't own a Chrome bag, my week has already kicked off to a good start. The Swiss people, in their kindness, hosted an event for cyclists at their embassy last night. They had great gifts for those in attendance, pant-leg retention devices which we used to call "Slap Bracelets" in the early 90s, and better still, an 8 ounce 85% cocoa Lindt Excellence choco-bar! We were informed by one of the panelists that the Swiss consume 25 lbs of chocolate per capita. I find this highly unlikely since the Swiss use the metric system, but I could believe 12 kilos, which is a damn lot of chocolate.

The highlight was Earl Blumenauer stopping by, telling anecdotes, and once again calling for a bike lane on Pennsylvania Ave. That would be some precedent.

Tomorrow is the big day, and I'll be at Freedom Plaza bright and early for setup at 7:00 AM. Last year, Brendan and I caused a controversy by calling BTWD "amateur day" or something. It's still a day for learning the ropes, but I will concede that I can be a snob about the process. I'm staying off the bike paths, mainly because I don't take any of them anyway, but also to provide a smidge more space for those just joining the bike commuting world.

Lastly, it seems like DDOT has been busy laying paint, and now we have a full bike lane from 18th up to 16th through Adams Morgan. I still don't know why there are huge gaps in the "network", I mean, when they paint new lanes, they must think about this, but maybe the political courage isn't there to take space from cars or parking in key spots. I'll just settle with a mild "meh" on the new stuff, and hope it all gets connected within the next year or two.

Healing Wheels Bike Tour

There is a great, new ride coming up and I wanted to let you know about it. It's the first ever, Healing Wheels Bike Tour, benefiting the Inner City Health Center. The ride is right around the corner: June 13th to be exact. Check it out - there are a variety of ride lengths - and each provides an excellent opportunity to tour the scenic front range.

Unlike other rides... ALL the proceeds go to a non-profit! (Inner City Health Center was recently honored with a Non-profit of the Year Award.)