Various Methods of Escape

Magenta bleeds over speckled snowed peaks
as I drink another cup trying to wake up,
resign myself to the fact that the glass
through which I look is not a television screen,
is not the computer screen,
is a barrier between the world I've created
versus the world I thought I wanted.

It's so close, I can feel it, the
quick sting of arctic wind on uncovered cheek,
the slap of snow against my eyes. Yet it is so far
away, the world on the other side of that portal.

This is just wishful thinking as I watch the day unfold,
the world start to melt, and the time slip away again
as I am glued to this seat, plugged into the machine
that I'm supposed to control, but which
controls me - telepathic electrons turning
me to mindless information zombie like that fungus
that infects ants and makes them do its bidding.

The weather around here is still being a bit of a bitch. 40 degrees at 4 in the morning is simply not right in the middle of January. The melting snow is not right in the middle of January. The fact that I got rained on this morning is not right in the middle of January. It's just not right, but it is what it is and I guess I'll just have to deal.

Yesterday, being a holiday and all, there was reduced bus service. So I got the chance to ride the bus with some folks I don't normally ride with. While standing in line and waiting, one lady, whom I've ridden with once before, started asking me about the bike and about biking.

Now, to be completely honest, this woman rubbed me the wrong way in my past interaction with her. She is one of those people who both have to have the last word on everything and is never wrong about anything. At least this is what I gathered from her interactions with myself and with others.

Yes, I'm a judgemental bastard. I know.

Anyway. She asked me how I stay clean while riding and followed that with the revelation that she stopped riding in the 80s because she couldn't stand getting dirty and wet.

I explained that I just let myself get wet and dirty and that I bring a set of clothes with me to change into when I get to the office. We then got into a discussion first about how to deal with bad weather and how no matter what riding in the rain is one of the less pleasant aspects of riding - except when it isn't. We got to talking about the cost of the bike and the maintenance that goes into it, and then we got to talking about why I ride my bike.

And it ended up being a really nice conversation. We talked about how I started bike commuting when I moved to Anchorage and how it was in the fall rather than the spring so I essentially went from neophyte into hardcore in the matter of a couple of weeks whether I wanted to or not. I ventured that had this not been the case that I would not still ride every day, but because of that experience right out of the gate, I know that I can handle any condition that comes my way.

She asked if I rode just to save money - which is where the cost of ownership came up. Of course the cost differential between daily driving a car and riding a bike is huge, and it did factor into my initial decision to bike commute, I don't think that is the main factor. The more that I ride, the more that it ends up costing me in both real maintenance as well as the "maintenance" items I always seem to desire (new saddle anyone?). It's still not anywhere near the cost of car ownership, but given that I am not terribly motivated by money (Yet I love buying stuff...it is a challenging dichotomy), the savings can't be what drives me to not drive.

I postulate that my desire to ride my bike stems more from my need to get outside every day. My first real job after high school, the job I put in 40 hours a week at, was building houses. So I was outside. A lot. In all kinds of weather. Then I started moving into "career" jobs - indoor work. Desk work. And I started feeling disconnected from the things that used to bring me so much joy - like watching the turkey vultures come back in the spring and thunderstorms build on the horizon.

Riding my bike gives me a taste of that twice a day. And I think that is, more than any other factor, what keeps me riding.

I was listening to the Sprocket Podcast last night, getting caught back up with past episodes and the discussion focused on the fact that most of us who get to ride our bikes daily are privileged - we have the choice to make, the working conditions that allow, and the habitations that make it possible to commute by bike. Yet so many people don't have the privilege of choosing their transportation options. Their socio-economic situation dictates their commuting options. Heavy stuff. But spot on.

I have so many factors that allow me to ride every day. I have a wife who is supportive of it and all it takes, logistically. My employer is flexible with my hours, allowing me to come to work earlier and leave a bit earlier in order to accommodate my bus situation. Generally the city is accommodating to cyclists with a great bike path network and well maintained roads. I've also made a conscious decision to work for a company that values alternative transport and who continually takes small steps to make it easier for its employees to do this. I've taken steps to ensure that I can continue to ride my bike - when looking for a house, this was a huge consideration - is it bike-able?

I guess my point here is just to remind myself how lucky I am to have the situation I have, to have the resources and the support needed in order to even have the choice of how I commute be a choice. That's pretty damned cool.

Yes it is.

Shortwave Radio

I should "train." I mean, what's the point of exercising if it is not to get ready for...something? Riding my bike just isn't enough, is it?

I'm not the type of guy who cares about 'getting better' or 'getting fitter.' Except when I am, but whatever.

I ride to ride. Intervals? What'r those? Hill repeats? Power meter?

Naw. I'll just ride, thank you much.

Even with the impending first time ever race that I may be doing with my daughter in March, I don't think I will find myself doing any training other than just getting out there and riding.

I guess I just don't have that killer instinct or competitive drive. Or maybe I just want to ensure that I don't start hating something that I love to do, much like I did with running.

I had a brief love affair with running. I went six or seven days a week. I pushed to PR my favorite routes each time I went out. I made myself feel like hell, not taking the proper time to recoup. I got to where the point of the run was to suffer. Then I started to really hate running. I love the idea of being out there and moving under my own power, but don't find joy in running anymore.

I still find joy in biking. And, addmittedly, my love affair with the bike has been around a lot longer than my fling with running ever was, but I don't want to lose the feeling of looking forward to my next ride rather than dreading it.

So, no training for me. Instead I'll just ride. I'll be faster than some and slower than others.

And With Her Came the Birds

You know, I always have these great ideas about things I want to write about. I usually come up with them while on the bike. By the time I get to where I'm going and settle in, I've forgotten just what it was that seemed like such a good topic. Meh. It is what it is.

I could write about the nearly two hours it took me to get home last evening. On a standing room only bus. See I got to the bus stop a bit early. I left early as it was snowing and I figured it could take me a bit longer than usual. It didn't. It took the 4:05 bus a bit longer to arrive, though. Normally I shun this bus with every ounce of my being. It is always packed and most of the riders seem less than happy to have me try to shove my fat bike into the limited space. Given that the bus was nearly 15 minutes late in arriving, I decided that the roads must be a bit iffy and thus it would make the most sense to hop this bus and deal with the crowding than to wait for the next bus, which might be even later than the first.

I think it was the right choice. From what I heard this AM, the 6:00 PM bus didn't get back to the valley until after 8. Not sure on the 4:30 bus, but I'm sure it, too, was a slow slog.

Heck, by the time I got to the bus stop in the Valley I was so spent that I didn't even fight when the wife asked if she could pick me up since she was out picking up the daughter anyway.

Swarm Reins Down

I'm a one bike type of guy. I think I've mentioned this before. I don't like specialization as it seems wasteful to me. That is why I use gloves instead of pogies, winter boots instead of bike-specific shoes with clipless pedals for the winter, and generally clothes to ride in that I also use for hiking, snowboarding, and skiing.

This is partially because I am cheap, but more over, I really don't want to have a new set of gear for every activity I want to try.

Generally this works out well. But I've found that with the bike itself, sometimes it's not as cheap to run a single bike. My general sense is that having a single bike as my do everything bike means that I tend to really chew up components quickly. Moving parts + salt + road grime + water + snow = really efficient grinding compound.

Chains tend to go quickly, my rings and cassettes turn to shark fins quickly, and bearings turn to dust in a season. Open bearings generally more so than cartridge bearings.

This brings me to the continuing saga of the rear hub. I've lamented the state of my rear hub time and again. Generally every time I have to rebuild the dang thing. So, the last time I was in the bike shop, I asked about how much it would cost to rebuild the wheel. 50 bucks, plus the cost of the hub and the cost of spokes - around a hundred bucks. So, essentially I could get the wheel rebuilt for about 200 bucks. Maybe 200 and a sixer of PBR. Well, that's 200 if I look at rebuilding with a similar level of hub - entry level. This is fine by me. As primarily a commuter, I really don't see the point of dropping anything over a hundred on a hub that I'll end up still needing to rebuild probably yearly. Yeah, the bling of a King hub would be sweet, but from a practical perspective... not so much.

What I don't want to deal with, though, is the open bearings of the Shimano hubs. Fortunately I've read some good things about the SRAM X7 hubs - cheaper hubs that use cartridge bearings. Zang! So, that's the direction I think I'll go. The front hub on the Pugs is a Surly hub with cartridge bearings and I've never had an issue with it at all.

The weather is getting ready to make a big and unwanted change again. Forecast is for warming temps and rain. Up to a half inch of rain on Friday. This is the definition of suckage. Trails will be decimated. Skier's will commit hari kari as their workouts become swimming lessons, and crawl spaces around the city will turn into swamps and pools. Not fun.

The Line

http://www.adn.com/2014/01/07/3262673/bicyclist-killed-in-northern-lights.html

At least once a year there is an article such as this one in the local news. And it always makes me sad. I didn't know this rider, but I'd seen him around. Hard to miss a guy on bike with bunny boots.

I think that as bike commuters, most of us are aware everyday that we take a real risk by riding our bikes for transport. Yet we still do it. I've talked about this before so I won't go into it again.

Read the article. Then read the comments that people leave. Anytime there is an article about bikes the wolves come out and the comments start flowing. It's almost as hot of a topic as abortion, it seems.

I try to discount the commenters as trolls just doing their thing - trying to generate clicks and hits and responses. Yet, what concerns me is the fact that some readers, if they take the time to read the comments, may not understand the fact that these 'opinions' might not actually be opinions, but rather someone who is paid to make posts in order to drive traffic. Or the comments and responses devolve into a left vs. right political argument that uses so many rhetorical fallacies that they make no real sense whatsoever.

Why is riding a bike such a polarizing topic? Why is there so much fear that generates so much venomous commentary? Why does one side think that if you ride a bike you must be an agent of the other side and want to take all cars away? Why does one side try to paint the other side as freeloaders who don't pay their share and shouldn't be allowed on the roads as such? Why is everything so one side or the other?

It's like all sense and reason has exited in favor of the most simplistic arguments possible that are based only on emotional responses to an issue rather than on any type of intellectual exploration. And it comes from both sides - if you're not with us, you're against us.

Bullshit. That's what it is. And I've a real fear that this bullshit isn't going to work as any kind of fertilizer for something good. We've all seen what happens when you put too much fertilizer on a lawn...

Finger Lickin' Good

Boots and gloves. Two things that really make it possible to bike commute year round. If your feet and hands are warm, then you're all good.

Last year I picked up a pair of Keen boots and they worked quite well for the most part. Then I wore them as wading boots this past summer - dumb idea, I know - and now they are all but worthless. They were never especially warm for stationary pursuits, but they worked well for the types of activities I used them for. However after immersion in the salt water, well... let's just say breathability became pretty much non-existent, making for some cold toes a lot of the time.

I'd toyed with the idea of just gutting it out for this year and then finding a bike-specific boot so that I can ride clipless year round starting next year. But I am loath to spend 200+ for a pair of boots that are purpose built. Seems silly to me.

So I started looking around at boots. Trying things on. Even purchasing a pair and then returning them. In the back of my head I kept thinking that I have boots and that they work in the general sense, so why not take that money and use it for something a bit more fun?

Then the wife found a boot for me. As with everything the wife does, she hit the nail on the head. Even after purchasing, I wasn't sure I would keep them, but after one two hour ride and a nice little snowy hike with the dogs and two day's commuting, I think I'm sold on the Merrell Norshund Alphas.

First, let me be clear that I've not worn these in deep cold conditions. It's been nearly 40 for the past few days. Not the best temps for testing boots. However, these shine in one area where the Keens failed me this winter - sweat management.

For two hours I rode yesterday in temps between 36 and 40 and my feet didn't get cold. This is significant as with the Keens lately I would have gotten cold feet after an hour or so as my feet sweated and then that sweat stayed against the skin. With the Merrells I had no damp against the skin. I never felt overly warm, either.

These boots are built like a combination Pac boot and hiking boot with enough support and stiffness that I might consider them for light snowboarding but with a removable liner that doubles as a camp booty.

They have amazing grip in loose snow conditions and I think they would work well with snowshoes.

I only have two minor complaints at this time. First, the tread pattern does make it a bit hard to get as good of connection with the pedals as what I was used to with the Keens. To get a good connection I have to move my feet out on the pedals a bit. Not uncomfortable, but will take some getting used to. The other complaint has to do with the liners. I love the idea of a removable liner. It just makes sense. I just wish that I could take off the boots a bit easier without having the liner come out. Sometimes I don't need to remove it so that it can dry, but there seems no way to simply slip the boot and liner on and off without the liner coming out.

Since we haven't had much in the way of beardcicle weather the last few days, I'll share a shot from a nice ride I did at Government Peak Rec Area over the break while my daughter was practicing with her school's ski team. I believe it was around -10 that morning.

What a beautiful place to ski, bike, walk the dogs, and generally recreate. 

Long Time no Tim

Vacations are good for the soul. They give us a chance to relax a bit, forget about email and other forms of electronic BS, and generally get right with the world.

Vacation also means no commuting. No buses. No getting up at the butt crack of dawn. But plenty of bike rides.

But all that is over now. Back to the groove. Back to the work-a-day world and the daily commute adventure.

And it started out being a bit of an adventure. I almost had to start the new year driving rather than biking and busing due to a bad hub. Hubs have been the bane of my existence since purchasing my Surly Pugsley in May of 2012. The bike has a Shimano M529 hub and I just don't know if it is my fat arse or a generally crappiness of the hub itself.

In a nutshell: I've had the wheel/hub replaced within the first 500 miles on the bike, rebuilt the hub at least 10 times in the nearly two years I've had the bike, and had the distinct feeling of rear end wobble on more descents than I care to remember.

That brings me to yesterday. I got up early on a Sunday morning to go for a nice ride. About two hours of road work in the snow and blow. A good way to start the day. I got home from the ride and prepped to get the bike put back into commuter mode with racks and such when I noticed that the rear wheel was flopping all to hell and back. I sucked it up, pulled the wheel, and set to getting things tightened up again.

It sucks achieving perfection only to have it all come undone. I'd get the cones adjusted just right, everything snug and ready to go, would put the wheel on the bike, give it a spin, check the cone adjustment and find that it was loose again.

WTF?

Come to find out, the threaded axle itself was stripped out, so the lock nut would back itself off as soon as the wheel would spin.

I had an old axle, in bad shape, but serviceable, so I rebuilt the hub with that and it works. For now. But for how long?

Anyone out there who wants to donate a pair of wheels (Holy Darrel would be nice) with some hubs that aren't crap can contact me here. I'll give you the address of where to send them... hell, I'll even pay shipping!