The heat is on!

The heat was unbelievable last week.

The commute home on Thursday started the week off at a relatively cool 110 degrees.  I say cool because it was partly cloudy and there was quite a bit of wind.  The wind, of course, blew a ton of dirt around and since I was loaded up with sunscreen I had a fine layer of Sunscreen and dirt all over by the time I got home.  Luckily, the wind was a tailwind because I really would have been in trouble if it was a headwind. 

Wind in the desert is a funny thing.  Usually wind is cool or even cold.  not in the desert.  it's as if you turn on your heater in your car and then direct the vent into your face.  Throw in some sand in the air, and smoke from a fire that was burning along my commute, and you have what has to be the most uncomfortable wind you I have ever been in!

Thursday was the worst day of the week by far.  It started with a flat tire when I pulled my bike out of my room to load it up for the commute to work.  No problem, just pop in a new tube and off we go.  The  temperature was a warm 88 degrees that morning which isn't too bad.  Not when the temp was 110 during the afternoon yesterday.

The ride home was a different story.

Gone was the wind and the 110 degree temperature.  Instead it was a sweltering 116 and the wind was replaced by humidity.  Breathing was tough and your lungs burned when the air got into them.  It was a very draining and exhausting ride.

About halfway through, I had to eat.  Normally I will have a powerbar or something like that in my handlebar bag but since I was pressed for time after the flat in the morning I guess I just forgot to pack a snack. 

So I made a stop at Ralph's, got an Oddwalla bar, and got a drink.  As I sat out in front of Ralph's enjoying my snack I saw that I had another flat.  Now I've only had one flat on this bike since I bought it at the end of last October so it was quite a coincidence to have 2 on the same day.  I checked the tire for any kind of thorns and couldn't find any.  I guess it was just bad luck.

Saturday morning was the hottest of all the mornings.  97 degrees at a quarter to 3 in the morning.  I couldn't believe it.  It was also humid so it was a sweaty ride in to work.  Sweatier than usual that is.

Saturday was also the day that I learned the most.  I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before, but I learned how to keep from getting a mouthful of hot water each time I took a drink from my Camelbak.  After each sip I blew back into the tube pushing the water back into the pouch and out of the tube where it was just sitting in the sun and heating up.  I have been commuting by bike for close to a year now and I just figured out that this would keep the water cool.

I also took my shirt off and let it soak in a sprinkler I put it back on and it was amazing how much more bearable the ride was.  Up until then I had been riding as close as I could to sprinklers and getting hit with the overspray. 

I don't know if it's the heat but I can't for the life of me figure out why I didn't think to do either of these things sooner.  I guess we aren't as smart as we think we are sometimes.

Another county trying to ban bikes

Proposed St. Charles Co. Bike Ban Draws Packed House

I am constantly amazed at the things that people will try to ban in this country.

St. Charles County Missouri wants to ban bikes on a number of highways in their county. 

Now, the County Council doesn't actually have the authority to ban bikes on the roads.  But they have decided that this is a matter of safety.  Which the numbers clearly contradict:

• According to Missouricaraccident.com Missouri auto fatalities in the year 2006 were nearly 1100 total.  Of those fatalities .06% were bike related which is down from the national average of 1.8%  Now in case you were wondering, .06% if 11 is 6.6 deaths for the entire year of 2006.  But this isn't for St. Charles County.  This is for the ENTIRE STATE OF MISSOURI! 
• By contrast, 76 Missouri pedestrians were killed in the state of Missouri in 2006. 
• Smoking causes 10,300 deaths in Missouri each year. 
• Missouri is also home of 12.3 firearm related deaths each year per 100,000 people which is good enough for 19th in the country.  St. Charles county has a population of 353,076 which means that there are over 36 deaths per year just in St. Charles Co. alone each year from firearms.

I think you get the point.

So if there are other things out there that are more dangerous than Bicycles on a few highways then why are the residents of this county working so hard to ban bikes?

Why do they not have a time frame in place to actually build the shoulders on the road that this article claims is the reason why Stephen East's daughters were unable to stay on the road in their accident in 2003. 

Stephen East, by the way, is the father of 2 teenage girls who were in an accident in 2003 when they swerved to avoid a cyclist who was in the middle of the road. His daughter's accident is one of the things that is being talked about all across the media in order to gain sympathy for the bike ban.

I just want to take a second to point out a couple of reasons that this accident would not have been prevented even if there was a ban on bikes in this county. 

• First, the cyclist who was "in the middle of the road" was clearly not obeying traffic laws.  If he was not following the laws that govern the rules of the road what makes anyone think that he would have been following a ban?
• The driver of the car was 16 years old.  Her reaction was not the same as that as a seasoned driver.  Also, the state law in Missouri has been since changed and she would not have been driving with her under aged sister in the car if this accident had happened today.

Those reasons notwithstanding I have to wonder what makes a county councilman, in this case a Mr. Joe Brazil, decide that he needs to place a ban on Bicycling because of an accident that occurred 7 years ago?  Could it be because he's: "received close to 100 emails from people concerned about cyclists on the road"?

I wonder if any of his emails came from Dennis Brown who says that Cyclists have set up parties in his front yard and refused to leave and that: "They're urinating behind your bushes, they're sitting on your porch and they're playing music at 3 and 4 in the morning and," he said. "When you go to talk to them, they're not a friendly bunch."

My suspicion is that most of the emails are from people who are just angry at the fact that they are slowed down by cyclists.  Who obviously are going slower than the posted 55 MPH speed limits in the areas where the ban is proposed. 

Despite the fact that Patty Vinyard, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Bike Federation, says: "Their funding sources are limited. They have to ration their funding" and "This ban could go on for years or even decades." 

Joe Brazil says "If it's, 'There's nothing we're going to do, we have that right,' we're going to butt heads and butt heads for a long time,"

What a way to use those limited funding sources wisely.
We would all be better served to follow the League of American Bicyclists suggestions on sharing the road.   It would be much safer for both drivers and cyclists.

Further reading:

Black Hawk Co. Bike ban

Stay safe in traffic

Road Rights

Following Le Tour

After my earlier post that equated the excitement of Bicycle racing to the excitement, or lack there of, of NASCAR.  I have been intently following the Tour De France.

Now I don't have the time to watch all 3-4 hours of coverage every day on versus, nor am I ready to drop $29.95 on their Tour tracker.  but I have been DVRing each stage since they are on while I am at work and a 4 hour telecast can be greatly shortened by fast forwarding through commercials!

This is the first tour that I have followed this closely.

It's interesting because I have ridden long distance before, well 55 miles is long distance to me, and I can understand a little bit about what the riders are going through while on their bikes.  Now, granted, I'm not usually riding along at 30 MPH but I'm still riding at the limits that I have.

The biggest issue I have so far is with figuring out who the overall leader is.  I think that I understand how the Green and Polka Dot Jerseys are awarded.  But I have no idea how the yellow jersey gets decided.

I know, I know, the yellow jersey is awarded to the guy who has the fastest overall time.  I just find it hard to believe how a guy can have say, a 60 second lead over the second place racer and then for 3 days they all finish with the exact same times that they had the day before.  Then, all of the sudden, one day some guy will come out of nowhere and take over the overall lead by like 3 minutes!

Confusion aside, it's been fun.  Even though it appears that Lance Armstrong doesn't have any chance to win the overall race but he can still win a stage or two.  He can even help his teammate Levi Leipheimer overcome a 2 minute and 14 second deficit to win the whole race!

I have also been entering every single contest related to the Tour De France I can!  I'm gonna win a freaking new bike if it kills me!  Although my fantasy cycling team doesn't seem to be the way I'm going to win it.

It was hot out there!

It was hot on my ride yesterday!  it's only going to get hotter as you can see from the forecast!

The Encounter

Part of my commute involves driving down a two lane road that goes through a bunch of fields with not much else around them.  It's a little unnerving because there really isn't a shoulder or a sidewalk for me to get onto in case there is a need to,  the speed limit is 50 MPH so cars fly by me all the time, and I work at a Casino so quite a few of those drivers flying by me are probably pretty drunk!

This morning  I was running late so I was pushing it a little bit in order to get to work on time.  I was coming up to an intersection where I couldn't really see down the cross street.

That's when I heard it.

I just heard what sounded like air rushing toward me.  It was coming from my left, so I looked in that direction but there are some pretty tall bushes over there so I couldn't really see anything.  I stopped about 100 feet from the stop sign because I was pretty sure I knew what was coming.

As it got closer, I could hear the engine , I finally could see the headlights.  It was definitely a car.  The car was going at least 100 MPH.  As I described before, I could hear the wind surrounding the car before I heard the engine.  I was glad that I stopped back from the intersection because if that car lost control it wasn't too likely that it would hit me. It blew through the intersection, completely ignoring the stop sign and kept on toward it's destination.

It shook me a little because it made me think about just how exposed I was out there on these deserted backroads on my bike.

As I rode the last mile or so into work I thought to myself that I was thinking to myself that I was actually pretty lucky to be riding my bike instead of driving in to work.  If I was in my car I would never have heard the other car until it was too late.  I might have seen the headlights of the other car, but at the speed he was going it may still have been too late.

I did make it to work in one piece, on time too,  it is funny what kind of thoughts little encounters like this one mean to you.

Riding at night, Riding in the heat

I have gone to a new shift. 

I start at 4 AM and get off at 2 PM.  My commute each way is radically different.  It's so different each way that I almost don't even believe that I am riding each way on the same day!

Since I start at 4 AM and I ride my bike I get up at 1 AM.  It allows me to have some breakfast, surf around on the Internet, and see what happened to my beloved San Francisco Giants.  I leave between 2:30 and 2:45 to give myself enough time for the 45-55 minute commute and any possible flats, breakdowns or other issues that may arise on my ride.

Yesterday it was 84 degrees outside when I left.  Yes, 84 degrees at 4 AM which is easily the coldest part of the night!  Needless to say, during summer in Palm Desert there is no being cold.

Riding at night is an interesting experience.  You can't see a whole lot even with your handlebar mounted headlight and the occasional street lamps.  Your mind tells you that there is always some unseen danger lurking in every shadow whether it is a giant pothole that wasn't there yesterday, some wild animal, or crazy guy who is waiting to jump out of the shadows and take your bike.

Never mind the fact that at that time in the morning even the crazies are asleep!

Everybody thinks I am crazy for riding at night. They think that it is just a matter of time before someone doesn't see me and runs me over.  I tell them that I am safer at night than I ever could be during the day since on a typical night commute I am lucky to see 5 cars.  During the day it's more like 500 cars go by me.  So the odds of me getting hit by someone who doesn't see me are much much greater during the day.

The biggest difference about riding at night is your lack of sight.  You are forced to concentrate more on the road and that further up the road than you ever need to during the day.  What looks like a shadow could be some debris or a pothole that will put an end to your ride if you miss it or misidentify it.  Where I live there is a lot of undeveloped space and a coyote or some other wild animal can be out there too.  The other night I noticed a shadow coming across the road towards me.  I was able to identify it as a dog in time and hit the gas.  The dog chased me for a little bit, let out a bark, and gave up.  It gave me a start but it reinforced the fact that I have to keep my eyes open in the dark.

It was 106 degrees at 2 PM when I left work to ride home.

Believe it or not, 106 degrees isn't as terrible as it sounds.  Sure it's hot and it's even more important than ever that you don't overextend yourself but when you are on a bike you have your own cooling system.  The wind keeps you from feeling the full effects of the heat.

Yesterday was my first day commuting in 100+ degree weather this year and I learned a valuable lesson.  Heat is extremely energy sapping.  You need to make sure you have eaten plenty of food and you have at least 2 times the amount of water you normally have. 

Oh, and ice is your friend!

I have been riding with just one water bottle, a Camelbak Podium ChillJacket, packed with ice.  That is more than sufficient when the weather is 84 degrees and just enough when it is 94 degrees.  When you cross that 100 degree mark it's time for a hydration pack.  Even though the wind fools you into thinking you are not sweating, you still are.  It is just evaporating in the wind before you really notice it.  You are losing fluid at a faster rate than you do when the weather is cooler.

I learned the food and the water lesson the hard way yesterday.  I didn't eat a ton for lunch and I only had the one water bottle.  Of course the bottle was packed with ice and water as usual.  I got about 9 miles into my almost 13 mile ride and realized that I was probably not going to make it without a pit stop.  My stomach was screaming for food and my legs and arms had become extremely shaky.  I had to stop and grab a Snickers bar and a Rockstar energy water. 

Funny thing is, my commute home was not too much longer than my ride to work was.  I may have been riding home to hard considering how hot it was and that it was the first time I had been exposed to that temperature in about 9 months. 

These experiences are part of what I think makes riding your bike to work so valuable of an experience.  You are forced to look deeper into your situation than just making sure you have enough gas, turning a key, and letting an engine carry you to your destination.  You need to know your situation, know how much it can and will change, and prepare accordingly. 

Hopefully, those experiences help you in more situations than just your bike ride!

Tour De Suisse Congrats Lance!

So I have been watching the Tour De Suisse at last a little bit every day since my original post about it.  Despite it being seemingly boring and the fact that I know next to nothing about that type of Cycling I still find myself checking in on it.  It's really interesting and seeing the crash the other day didn't hurt it's interest either.  Although seeing those guys crash like that made me appreciate helmets even more because just about all of those guys hit their heads on the pavement and hard! 

I watched the final time trial stage today and I wanted to just say congratulations to Lance Armstrong for finishing second overall and Frank Schleck for the overall tour victory.

I also can really appreciate how hard what they are doing is.  The other night, after watching one of the stages of the Tour De Suisse, I went out on my bike and attempted to get it up to 25 MPH. 

Now let me preface this by saying that I was on a 25 LB. Kentfield FS hybrid.

I hit 21 MPH on the approximately 1 mile stretch that I had available to me on my short ride.  I held it for a little while before I came up to a stop light.  Let me tell you that it's tough riding that fast for an extended period of time.  Again, it's not like I'm riding a Madone like Lance, but it is still a tough thing to do.

Now, I'm still not sure that I'm going to become a big fan of competitive cycling or anything but I'm going to be watching more of the tour De France than I normally do.  Hopefully Lance wins!