Ray was right, lawnmowing is hazardous

I was all set to write about riding on the new section of the Greenway tonight. But when I got home, the family was still swimming at the Y so I decided to take advantage of the solitude and get some chores done. Specifically, mowing the lawn. I'm not all anal and obsessive about the lawn, and usually only mow when the grass starts to wave in the wind like something out of The Lion King. But the weather forecast over the next week or so will make people start to wonder what exactly a cubit is, so I figured that this was the time to do it.

We had a lovely Honda riding lawn mower for about 2 years, but this summer the transmission decided to shuffle off this mortal coil. So I've been mowing with the mini-mower, a little unit that we bought when we lived in South Dakota nearly 10 years ago. It was cheap as all get out ($79 I think) and has been a workhorse ever since. But the 20" cutting width just isn't cutting it for our half acre lot.

I fired up the mini-mower and started mowing. I usually mow in concentric circles. Again not because I really care about lawn patterns, but because it just seems easier. Our yard has a ton of trees and other things to mow around, but the majority are around the edges. So if I start at the outside and work my way in most of the hard part is over first.

I'd made two laps around the yard. On the second lap I put a pretty good scratch in my shoulder from a tree branch. And then on the third time around I felt something poke me in the leg. That's odd, I thought. I wasn't anywhere near a tree or shrub. Then something else poked me in the back. I looked down and saw a bee on my shirt. Then I felt another poke (or sting, I realized) and figured out what was going on. I shut off the mower and started running like a cartoon character, running while twisting, turning and swatting. As I ran toward the house, I could feel that one was on my back and I started calling to my wife so she could come out and get it off me. But it stung me instead. Nancy came outside just in time to hear me curse and swat some more. I took my clothes off on the patio (what will the neighbors think?!) and went inside. As we watched, two more bees crawled out of my shorts!

I decided my mowing was over for the night, went inside and took a shower. After getting doused with calomine lotion we counted 7 stings. And when I went to look, those two bees were still buzzing around my clothes, trying to find something to sting. I went back up and got the lawnmower, and I think I saw the hole in the ground where the bees are coming from.

Tomorrow, me and my friend the gas can are going to burn those bastards out.

Date: September 15
Mileage: 18
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Jamis
September mileage: 68
Year to date mileage: 2496

Random Photo Dump

I finally went through my phone and uploaded the pictures that were on it. Judging by the snow, it's been a while.

My Peace Coffee bottle I got at the 2005 Bike To Work event is on the left. The one I got at the 2006 Bike To Work event is on the right. But you probably could have guessed which was which.


Sledding with the kid.




I ride by this bike almost every morning. It's cool.


Who knew a fifty cent kiddie merry go round outside a grocery store could get such big smiles?


Sorry for taking your picture at work, Christopher. And doubly sorry for posting it on the internet.


I really don't know what I was thinking when I took this.


Gopher hockey!


I don't even know what this is.


Date: September 11
Mileage: 16
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Schwinn
September mileage: 50
Year to date mileage: 2478

Dairy Run

Yesterday afternoon my wife called me at work.

Nancy: Did you drive or bike today?
Me: I biked.
Nancy: Oh.
Me: Why?
Nancy: I wanted you to pick up some sour cream on the way home. But I guess we can do without.
Me: I can pick up sour cream. No problem.

And I picked up that sour cream, all 16 ounces.

Date: August 29
Mileage: 23
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Jamis
August mileage: 291
Year to date mileage: 2405

Date: August 31
Mileage: 23
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Jamis
August mileage: 314
Year to date mileage: 2428

Date: September 6
Mileage: 16
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Jamis
September mileage: 16
Year to date mileage: 2444

Date: September 8
Mileage: 18
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Schwinn
September mileage: 34
Year to date mileage: 2462

Creaky Snake Goes Dancing

It seems as though just when one thing starts working right, something else fails. Especially with bikes. Case in point, the Jamis. Saturday I put 24 miles on it with no issue. Then I installed a rack. Then I rode 6 miles home. So far, so good. I hooked up the tag-along and rode another 15 miles without incident. Then later I did another 12 miles. On the last 12 miles, my Flightdeck computer stopped working. But in the strangest way. It is showing me current speed, estimated cadence and the odometer is updating normally. But it won't track individual ride time or distance. How the frell can it pick up my miles per hour but not record distance?? Grrr. I cannibalized the battery out of the wife's bike computer, since Shimano didn't see fit to pack a battery with the unit. I'm going to try a new battery and see if the issue goes away.

Then this morning on the way to work I developed a creak. It sounded like it was coming from the bottom bracket, but that seems too easy. I tried pedaling with my feet unclipped and it still creaked, so I don't think it's a pedal issue. It only creaks when I'm pedaling, not when I'm coasting. I tried stopping and moving my pannier from the left side to the right, thinking the weight might be causing it. No change. So I rode the rest of the way getting annoyed by the creak. Then, on the way home, no creak. I'm not sure what to think at this point. I hate trying to track down creaks.

Date: August 28
Mileage: 23
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Jamis
August mileage: 268
Year to date mileage: 2382

Long Saturday = Lazy Sunday? Not so much.

I finally had a weekend at home when I didn't have about 1000 things going on, so I got permission to do the Hiawatha Ride on Saturday morning. I headed out from home around 7:15 and met up with the group for the 7:45 flight time. It was a much bigger group than the last time I rode with them, which was sometime back in May or early Jume. Have I mentioned that it was a busy summer? And there were women! The previous Hiawatha Rides I'd been on had been all XY. Good changes, all.

We rolled out and made a lazy loop around the Mpls lakes and up to the Greenway. We jumped off the trail at Uptown for some refreshment and caffeine at CRC. I'd never been before, and I liked it quite a bit. Nothing quite like drinking coffee surrounded by bikes hanging on the walls, bike stuff for sale (including the bikes on the walls), and even a fairly complete-looking repair station for that unexpected mechanical.

Once back at Hiawatha, I started shopping for rear racks for the Jamis. The Jamis is a great ride, but I don't use it for commuting all that often because I have to wear the messenger bag to do so. And I really don't like commuting with the messenger bag. I'm more of a pannier kind of guy. The frame has braze-ons for a rack, but most of the racks we tried interfered with the rear brake. Big thanks to Jim and Kevin for letting me open up damn near every rack in the place to find one that would fit. I had started with the most expensive rack in the place, and found that the cheapest one fit best. The frugal part of me loves it when stuff works out like that. So I'm all racked up and ready to roll.

Nancy called as I was finishing the rack install and said she and the girls were back to school shopping and told me to meet them at Old Chicago for lunch. I got the bike home with just a hair over 30 miles on it and went for lunch. While there we ran into one of Morgan's school friends, Laura, and set up an impromptu playdate for that afternoon. Laura came to our house around 2 and our other daughter Emma tried to pal around, but she doesn't know Laura and felt kind of left out. Nancy quickly suggested that I take Emma for a bike ride with the tag-along. So I hooked it all up and off we went. Nancy also called Emma's friend Sophia and set up a playdate for 5:00.

We had a great ride. I took her up along my normal commute route and we stopped off at Minnehaha Falls. After fooling around at the falls for a while we headed up the trail a bit more. After a couple more miles we turned around because Emma didn't want to be late for her playdate. We buzzed back home and I had 45 miles for the day. Emma's a good little pedaler, but it's still hard work pulling her and the tag-along.

After Nancy took Emma to Sophia's, Laura's folks picked her up and Morgan and I were on our own for dinner. Morgan looked at me with the big puppy-dog eyes and asked if we could bike to the waterfall. So I changed back into the bike clothes, hooked the tag-along up again and off we went. We saw the falls and tacked another 12 miles on to end up at 57 for the day (for me). This was the longest distance either of the kids had done on the tag-along and it went great. We'll be doing this more often.

I wanted to take it easy today, but ended up taking the kids to the Fair for nearly 6 hours this afternoon. A lot of walking. I think I'm gonna hit the hay.

Date: August 24
Mileage: 23
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Schwinn
August mileage: 165
Year to date mileage: 2279

Date: August 25
Mileage: 23
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Schwinn
August mileage: 188
Year to date mileage: 2302

Date: August 26
Mileage: 57
Ride type/Bike: Hiawatha/Kid/Kid/Jamis
August mileage: 245
Year to date mileage: 2359

Rocket Power!

My sources have informed me that there is currently a rocket powered bicycle on display here in the Twin Cities. In Bloomington, no less. I did some preliminary web snooping and came up with a picture of said bike:


The bike was built by Ky Michaelson, the self-described "Rocket-man". A former Hollywood stuntman who clearly took one too many blows to the head, he is now completely obsessed with rockets. How obsessed? He's built a rocket-powered toilet. I shit you not (pardon the expression).


But there are more intriguing items to be found on his website. My personal favorite is this one, titled simply "Jeff on paules jet"


Who is Jeff? Was he stupid/brave enough to actually ride this rocket powered bike? Is that helmet ANSI approved? Is that bike really a Hawthorne with BMX handlebars? What happened to his shoelaces?

And this one. A potential winter commuter?? It certainly gives a new spin to the term "track bike."


I might need to make a pilgramage to the Bloomington Art Center.

Pod Person

There hasn't been a lot of riding lately. There hasn't been a lot of posting lately. There hasn't been a lot of reading done. I'm a month behind on both of the magazines I subscribe to, the bookmarks are at the early part of last month's issue and the current month's issue is sitting unopened, mocking me. I've been mainly skimming everybody else's blog posts, and I certainly haven't been commenting (sorry about that).

There has, however, been an explosion in the amount of music consumed. The House of Velocipete has finally entered the 21st century and gotten an iPod. And it's taken over. And that's just a little bit of all right.

Right now the lawn needs to be mowed, there's a few downed trees that need to be cut up and dragged to the composting place, more trees that need to be trimmed and/or removed. The place could use a good cleaning. The bathroom sink is plugged up. The garage needs to be cleaned and reorganized.

3398 songs, 8.8 days, 11.67 GB. And counting.

Date: August 10
Mileage: 24
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Jamis
August mileage: 96
Year to date mileage: 2210

Date: August 14
Mileage: 23
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Schwinn
August mileage: 119
Year to date mileage: 2233

Date: August 15
Mileage: 23
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Schwinn
August mileage: 142
Year to date mileage: 2256

Run, Floyd, Run

Amazing video of local police as they attempt to take Landis in for questioning:


OK, so maybe it ain't Landis. ;-) But stay tuned to the end anyway. It's totally worth it. Found via cyclelicio.us

Date: August 9
Mileage: 24
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Jamis
August mileage: 72
Year to date mileage: 2186

This here's a holdup

As I was sitting at the stoplight on Lake and Minnehaha the elderly gentleman next to me rolled down his window and asked if I wanted to race. I said sure, but told him I'd take it easy on him so he wouldn't be embarrased to lose in front of his wife (who was in the passenger seat). He said it would be especially embarrasing considering he'd just paid over $70 to fill the tank with premium. $3.39 per gallon. Then he quipped, "The oil companies have a knife in our ribs, don't they?" and laughed. At $3.39 per gallon I'm sure he's gotta laugh to keep from crying.

Date: August 7
Mileage: 24
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Jamis
August mileage: 24
Year to date mileage: 2138

Date: August 8
Mileage: 24
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Jamis
August mileage: 48
Year to date mileage: 2162

Phlandis Phinished?

As expected, the B sample has come back positive. The Phonak statement is:

The Phonak Cycling Team has learned today from the International Cycling Union (UCI) that team captain Floyd Landis’s B sample has also resulted in a positive finding of doping. As a result, Landis will be dismissed without notice for violating the team’s internal Code of Ethics. Landis will continue to have legal options to contest the findings. However, this will be his personal affair and the Phonak team will no longer be involved in that. Team owner Andy Rihs deeply regrets this development. At present, he is clarifying with all parties involved what consequences this may have for his company ARcycling AG, the operator of the Phonak Cycling Team. Andy Rihs and Team Manager John Lelangue will make in-depth statements regarding this matter at a media conference to be held in the next couple of days.

The Phlandis statement is:

It is widely known that the test in question, given as a urine sample after my victorious ride on stage 17 of the Tour de France, returned an abnormal T/E ratio from the “A” sample. I want to be entirely clear about one point of the test that has not been fairly reported in the press or expressed in any statements made by international or national governing bodies; the T value returned has been determined to be in the normal range. The E value returned was LOW, thus causing the skewed ratio. This evidence supports my assertion that I did not use testosterone to improve my performance. I emphatically deny any claims that I used testosterone to improve my performance.

At this point there's not really much to add. Phonak has cut Phlandis loose and the conventional wisdom says that we won't see him on a pro bike race for two years. Buenos tardes, amigo.

Almost Famous

Woo, I got mentioned on Cycle-Licious!

You know she's gonna leave you well done

I missed out on the coldest day of the year so I wanted to make sure I didn't miss out on one of the hottest. I filled up one water bottle with total ice water, and it was still warm half way home. The other one that spent the day in the parking garage was like drinking hot coffee, minus the coffee flavor. Nasty. I think I prefer it when my water bottle was caked with road salt and half frozen.

Date: July 31
Mileage: 23
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Jamis
July mileage: 292
Year to date mileage: 2114

Phinished?

We've got houseguests for the weekend and upcoming week, but I've been able to slip away and read up a bit on testosterone. And the latest report from cyclingnews.com says that the testosterone found in Floyd's blood was exogenous. Which is making it pretty hard for me to believe Floyd.

There's a guy who's done a lot more thinking about t/e ratios than I'll probably ever do posting at freefloydlandis.blogspot.com. Great reading, if for no other reason than to help me understand what the tests mean and why a positive IRMS for exogenous testosterone sounds darn near proof positive.

Testosterone

Interesting read about testosterone in sport. From Drugstore Athlete, originally printed in The New Yorker, September 10, 2001.

Perhaps the best example of the difficulties of drug testing is testosterone. It has been used by athletes to enhance performance since the fifties, and the International Olympic Committee announced that it would crack down on testosterone supplements in the early nineteen-eighties. This didn't mean that the I.O.C. was going to test for testosterone directly, though, because the testosterone that athletes were getting from a needle or a pill was largely indistinguishable from the testosterone they produce naturally. What was proposed, instead, was to compare the level of testosterone in urine with the level of another hormone, epitestosterone, to determine what's called the T/E ratio. For most people, under normal circumstances, that ratio is 1:1, and so the theory was that if testers found a lot more testosterone than epitestosterone it would be a sign that the athlete was cheating. Since a small number of people have naturally high levels of testosterone, the I.O.C. avoided the risk of falsely accusing anyone by setting the legal limit at 6:1.

Did this stop testosterone use? Not at all. Through much of the eighties and nineties, most sports organizations conducted their drug testing only at major competitions. Athletes taking testosterone would simply do what Johnson did, and taper off their use in the days or weeks prior to those events. So sports authorities began randomly showing up at athletes' houses or training sites and demanding urine samples. To this, dopers responded by taking extra doses of epitestosterone with their testosterone, so their T/E would remain in balance. Testers, in turn, began treating elevated epitestosterone levels as suspicious, too. But that still left athletes with the claim that they were among the few with naturally elevated testosterone. Testers, then, were forced to take multiple urine samples, measuring an athlete's T/E ratio over several weeks. Someone with a naturally elevated T/E ratio will have fairly consistent ratios from week to week. Someone who is doping will have telltale spikes--times immediately after taking shots or pills when the level of the hormone in his blood soars. Did all these precautions mean that cheating stopped? Of course not. Athletes have now switched from injection to transdermal testosterone patches, which administer a continuous low-level dose of the hormone, smoothing over the old, incriminating spikes. The patch has another advantage: once you take it off, your testosterone level will drop rapidly, returning to normal, depending on the dose and the person, in as little as an hour. "It's the peaks that get you caught," says Don Catlin, who runs the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory. "If you took a pill this morning and an unannounced test comes this afternoon, you'd better have a bottle of epitestosterone handy. But, if you are on the patch and you know your own pharmacokinetics, all you have to do is pull it off." In other words, if you know how long it takes for you to get back under the legal limit and successfully stall the test for that period, you can probably pass the test. And if you don't want to take that chance, you can just keep your testosterone below 6:1, which, by the way, still provides a whopping performance benefit. "The bottom line is that only careless and stupid people ever get caught in drug tests," Charles Yesalis says. "The lite athletes can hire top medical and scientific people to make sure nothing bad happens, and you can't catch them."

Innocent until proven guilty, or...

When Operación Puerto hit the Tour, it hit both the presumed guilty and the innocent bystander. The biggest examples of the presumed guilty are Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, both top contenders who were not allowed to start the Tour because they were under suspicion of doping. It also had collateral damage effects, best illustrated through the Astana team. Astana had five riders implicated in Operación Puerto. And while Alexandre Vinokourov was not named, he was also not allowed to start because his team did not have enough riders. Collateral damage in the war on drugs, or something to that effect.

In many conversations about Operación Puerto, the theme I noticed most often was that people were surprised that the riders were suspended. Here in the land of the free, raised under the idea that we're all innocent until proven guilty (unless you're a suspected terrorist, of course), the idea of suspending suspected riders didn't seem to sit well with most folks. And it didn't sit well with me either.

Today, the five Astana riders were formally cleared of any involvement in Operación Puerto. The Spanish court issued a statement confirming that "there are not any type of charges against them nor have there been adopted any type of legal action against them." Too bad, so sad, sorry Vino you missed your Tour for nothing. In more ways than one. But hey, this is a war. And if a few people get screwed it's worth it to have a clean race, right?

Maybe not. Also on the news wire this morning is a story that a "high profile rider" is said to have tested positive for testosterone after Stage 17. You remember Stage 17 as the stage where Floyd Landis went crazy and took back nearly all of the 8 minutes he'd lost the previous day. And while the UCI won't reveal the rider's identity until the B sample comes back and the accused rider is given the opportunity to have a counter-analysis done, The Times has made sure that Floyd is the #1 suspect until proven innocent. Landis' name is mentioned seven times in the article. Total of other riders who participated in the Tour that received a mention? None. It should be interesting to see where this goes.

Date: July 25
Mileage: 23
Ride type/bike: Commute/Trike
July mileage: 269
Year to date mileage: 2091

Tour wrap-up

Saturday night my wife told me that she was keeping up on The Tour by reading about it in my blog. This is the news equivalent of keeping up on what's happening in the middle east by visiting MySpace. I can't even make accurate pre-race predictions. Though considering Operation Puerto pulled two of my podium favorites, I did OK. I had Floyd picked to place second, and Basso first. Since Basso didn't start, Floyd automatically slides to first and I should get credit for that pick. Right? I did nail Rasmussen in the Polka-Dot jersey, but Boonen was a major disappointment. He was probably too intimidated by McEwen's Jolly Jogger celebration to do anything. And I should also probably get half credit for Cunego taking the white jersey. He doesn't have a mullet, but I've never heard of him.

Call me an American fan-boy if you want, but I was glad to see Floyd pull of his win. I root for the US in the Olympics too. I guess I'm just a root-root-root for the home team kind of guy. And I hope Floyd keeps piling on the wins. If for no other reason than to see more of Amber Landis. Rrrow.

In other American cycling news, there's some changes afoot at Team Discovery. I'm sad to see that Eki is retiring, but at the same time wondering who they're planning on signing. According to Chris Brewer (registration required), they're announcing something tomorrow morning. Stay tuned...

Edit: Discovery announced tonight that they've just signed Levi Leipheimer. Via tdfblog.com. I wonder if they're done...

Date: July 24
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
July mileage: 246
Year to date mileage: 2068

Suitcase of Courage

Mr. Landis, the bellhop has your luggage waiting outside.



Date: July 19
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
July mileage: 200
Year to date mileage: 2022

Date: July 20
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
July mileage: 23
Year to date mileage: 2045

It's Comcastic!

So I get home from work yesterday, make a couple of minor tweaks on the trike and pick up the kids. They want to ride on the new tag-along bike I picked up this weekend. So I hooked that up and hauled 7 year olds around behind me for about an hour and a half. That's not a lot of mileage because we were just cruising the neighborhood, but it does make for 3 1/2 hours on a bike yesterday. I cooked dinner, we ate, and I cleaned up. Nancy is reading Prince Caspian to the girls, so while they started in on their latest chapter I snuck downstairs to catch some Alpe d'Huez action. And, horror of horrors, the cable is out! So is internet. So I call Comcast, and long story short there's a guy coming to the house this morning between 8-9 to try and figure out why. But I missed all of possibly the best stage of the Tour. Man.

On a positive note, I was sitting at a stoplight on the way home yesterday afternoon and a little pickup truck pulls up next to me. The driver leans over and says, "How many miles per gallon does that thing get?" I said, "As many as you want." He laughed and laughed at that one, and we both went our seperate ways as the light turned green. Nice to have some pleasant interaction with my fellow travellers once in a while.

Date: July 18
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
July mileage: 177
Year to date mileage: 1999

Race Report: TransPhalen

Saturday it was hot as blazes. Or as we used to say, 'wicked hot.' I drove to Lake Phalen for the annual TransPhalen Regatta, a race between all the instructors and instructor assistants in the Red Cross Sailing Program. I've raced this race for the last 6 years and have never won. Other than the heat, it was a perfect day. The skies were blue and the wind was blowing. We rigged the boats and hit the water at 11:00.

The course was set up with a buoy at each of the four "corners" of the lake. The route was a one time circumnavigation of the lake in a counterclockwise direction, cross through the start and once again in a clockwise direction. Normally I botch the start somehow, and then spend the rest of the race trying to catch up. But not this year. This year I had a fabulous start. I crossed the line second and headed on my first tack right behind the guy who has won the race the last two years running. When I came about the first time is where things all went to hell. I tacked, but it seems like the wind shifted at the same moment. So the boat turned, the sail crossed, but I was sitting there doing nothing. So I started falling off and finally found the wind. I sailed that tack but gave up way too much of the lake and fell behind. And after that, I spent the rest of the time trying to catch up. In reality, I spent the entire first lap trying to figure out what the hell the wind was doing.

Once we changed directions I felt much more in tune with the boat and the wind. I had fallen to fourth place by this point, and I knew that first or second was out of reach unless one of those guys capsized. So I just raced my own race from that point. I had several great tacks where I was hiked out the full length of my body. It may not be the fastest point of sail, but it's one of the most exciting, especially on a Sunfish. I managed to make up some time and did pass the third place sailor. She's fairly petite and the wind was really pushing her around, so I think I passed her based on weight, not skill. I held on and finished third.

This was my first regatta of the year and my first time out on a boat this year, so I was really rusty. And it showed. I'm happy with the finish, because usually I finish further down, but lack of time on the water really showed. But the most important part is that it was a blast, as always. The people who volunteer for the program are great, and it's always fun to get to see them and sail with them.

If anybody is interested in learning to sail, I can't say enough good things about the Red Cross program. For a mere $100 you get 8 three hour training sessions (that's only $4.16 per hour), and with the exception of the first night every session includes time on the water. If you would like more info about the program, feel free to contact me.

Date: July 17
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
July mileage: 131
Year to date mileage: 1953

Date: July 18
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
July mileage: 154
Year to date mileage: 1976

Sorry, Paul

Conversation I had with my daughter this evening:

Daughter, after coming downstairs and finding me in from of the Tour: Oh, you're watching bike racing again?

Me: Yes.

Daughter: Who's that guy talking?

Me: That's Paul Sherwin.

Daughter: Can I make fun of him?

Me: No!

Daughter: Oh. OK.

Date: July 12
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
July mileage: 89
Year to date mileage: 1911

Date: July 13
Mileage: 19
Ride type: Commute
July mileage: 108
Year to date mileage: 1930

Nice rack!

Over the Fourth of July weekend, I made an effort to get a rear rack for the trike, but exhausted my professional options. So here's a recap of how I made my quick and dirty pannier rack for the Sun EZ Tad. First, I made a trip to Home Depot and bought a bar of aluminum flat and four 5mm bolts, two longer and two shorter.


I got out the drill and drilled two holes in the aluminum that line up with the two eyelets on the rear of the trike. Then I trimmed the corner of the aluminum with a hacksaw so it could clear the rear quick release. Here's the results after cleaning up the cut with a dremel.


Then it was time to test fit. I mounted the flat on one side. So far, so good. Then I test fit one of the panniers. Again, good.



From there, it was basically lather, rinse, repeat. I bent the aluminum twice so the remaining portion went back toward the other side of the frame, cut it to length, drilled matching holes and cut a notch. Here's the whole thing bolted on.


And finally, the entire deal with both panniers mounted.


After about 65 miles, including two commutes, I'm quite pleased with the results. It seems pretty solid and the panniers are staying where they belong. And what's more, it doesn't even look like it was slapped together by a halfwit in his driveway.


Date: July 11
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
July mileage: 66
Year to date mileage: 1888

The Tour

I've been off work since last Thursday, and today is my first day back. My routine, since Saturday morning has been:
Roll out of bed, usually around 8
Make coffee
Turn on Tour coverage
Drink coffee, read blogs and watch the Tour until 11 or so
Get on with the rest of the day

So now, do I try to avoid any tour coverage during the workday and watch the updates in the evening? Or do I keep hitting refresh on the live update sites like an addicted lab monkey trying for his next fix? Either way, my employer shouldn't be able to require me to work between 7:30-11am during the month of July. It's inhumane.

Date: July 5
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
July mileage: 43
Year to date mileage: 1865

Shakedown Street

The rear rack I ordered for the trike came in last Friday. I picked it up at Calhoun Cycles and immediately noticed that it had no support for a pannier's bottom clip. I talked to the guy from Calhoun and decided to try and take it home and make it work. He told me if I couldn't make it work at home to bring the rack and trike in once it was mounted and they could fabricate something. Over the weekend I took the rack out and realized that the folks at Sun decided that including enough bolts to mount the rack to the bike was not a needed feature. Since I would need to make a trip to the store anyhow, I decided to take everything back to Calhoun and see what we could come up with.

So Monday I loaded the trike in my van and drove to Calhoun. A different guy was working in the shop but he came out to take a look. His lack of enthusiasm for this project was immediately apparent. He mentioned a few things, and expressed his surprise that Calhoun would have even supplied this rack. When I mentioned that it came without the lower mounting bolts he went inside. I waited outside for at least 10 minutes before I went inside. He said, "I've got two 5mm bolts for you there [edit: I needed 6mm]. You can have them for free if you don't ask me any more questions about that rack." Ok then. I asked about fabrication. He said that it would be minimum of $30 plus parts and would be ready Friday at the earliest. Less than impressed, I headed for home.

I stopped off at Home Depot and purchased $8 worth of parts and spent an hour or so in the driveway and whipped something together. By this time it was about 6:30 and I told my wife I was going for a shakedown ride. I took a quick peek at my bike map and decided to ride down Highway 13, cross the Minnesota River on the bike/pedestrian bridge, head back on the west side of the river, cross back on 494 and then home.

I'd never crossed the pedestrian bridge near Highway 77, but I knew it was there from time spent exploring the nature preserve. The bike map said to follow Kennebeck Drive. I rode down 13 and never saw a sign for Kennebeck. When I got to 77 the shoulder ran out, so I turned around and started doing some exploring. I finally found Kennebeck but still couldn't figure out how to get to the bridge.

After yet another dead end I saw a security guard walking down the road. He worked for the Seneca Water Treatment Plant. I stopped and asked him if he knew where the road to the bridge was. He pointed toward the plant and said it was down that way, but he couldn't let me go that way. But, he helpfully explained, if I were to come from the other direction (meaning going up to 494, crossing the river, riding down to the bridge and crossing from west to east) I could gain entry to the plant and he would then be authorized to open the gate to let me out. But he was not authorized to open the gate and let me in. They couldn't let just anybody in because of the possibility of terrorists. He was very earnest, and I didn't want to cause him concern by pointing out the obvious. So I thanked him for the info and decided to ride that loop another day. Instead I headed east, wound around and eventually found 149 which I followed back home.

I had one stop to readjust my camelback, because the mounting position I started out with caused the fender to rub against the rear tire when the bladder was full. But all in all a successful test run. I think I'm ready to commute on the trike.

Date: July 3
Mileage: 20
Ride type: Shakedown
July mileage: 20
Year to date mileage: 1842

Putting it all in perspective

Thanks, Fatty, I needed that.

The Year of the Asterisk

I read the news today, oh boy

So the blogosphere (have I mentioned that I hate that term?) is on fire this morning about the fallout from Operación Puerto. At least, the tiny little bicycling corner of the blogosphere that I frequent is on fire. So unless this is the first blog you read every day (and bless you if that's the case) you've heard the big splash that Operación Puerto has had on this year's Tour. The reports are somewhat conflicting at this point, with some stating that teams with riders being pulled are not replacing the riders (riding shorthanded) and other reports indicating that the riders will be replaced.

The list so far (31 riders)

Astaná-Würth: Michele Scarponi, Marcos Serrano, David Etxebarria, Joseba Beloki, Angel Vicioso, Isidro Nozal, Unai Osa, Jörg Jaksche

CSC: Ivan Basso

Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears: Constantino Zaballa

Saunier Duval: Carlos Zarate

AG2R: Francisco Mancebo

T-Mobile: Jan Ullrich, Oscar Sevilla

Phonak: Jose Enrique Gutierrez, Jose Ignacio Gutierrez

Comunidad Valenciana: Vicente Ballester, David Bernabeu, David Blanco Rodriguez, Jose Adrian Bonillla, Juan Gomis Lopez, Eladio Jimenez, David Latasa, Javier Pascual, Ruben Plaza, J.Luis M. Jimenez

Unibet.Com: Carlos Garcia Quesada

Retired/suspended riders: Roberto Heras, Angel Casero, Santiago Perez, Tyler Hamilton
From cyclingnews.com

In all the news I've read this morning, it seems there's one guy who gets it. David Millar. Millar was suspended two years ago for doping and the Tour is his first race since the suspension expired. Millar is providing the model that cycling needs to follow to shake the perception that it's dirty. It's simple, really. Admit your guilt if caught. I think this is what bothers me most about all the drug problems in cycling. In most cases, when a rider is accused of doping you get one of two reactions:
1. I didn't do it.
2. No comment/talk to my lawyers.

That's what makes Millar refreshing. He openly admits what he did. Millar says, "I f**ked up: I lied, I did wrong, I cheated, and I have to live with that now." And that's what I want to hear from Jan, and Ivan. And everybody else. I want them, if they are truly guilty, to 'fess up, apologize, and pledge to come back after their suspension and ride clean.

Web stories:
tdfblog
cyclingnews.com
velonews.com
bbc.com

Tour Drama

Today a Spanish judge removed the gag order that has been in place since the May arrest of Doctor (and I use the term loosely here) Eufemiano Fuentes and the beginning of what is being termed Operación Puerto. This has potential to have a huge Tour de France impact. You heard me, huge. How huge? I'll tell you.

The Spanish Secretary of Sport is flying to France tonight to discuss the results with his French counterpart, Jean-François Lamour, before the start of the Tour. Which, I need not remind anybody, is in two days. Some of the names being tossed around are big names in the Tour. In fact, two of my top three podium picks. Names like Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Oscar Sevilla, Joseba Beloki, Santiago Botero, Santi Pérez, Quique Gutierrez and Angel Edo.

No matter the outcome, it won't be pretty. Here are the possibilities as I see them, from best possible to worst:
1. The Tour decides to allow the riders to participate in the Tour, pending more evidence. In my perfect scenario, the ultimate winner of the Tour will be cleared of his involvement post-race.
2. The Tour decides to ban the suspected riders from the tour. They are later implicated. It's risky, but it would look like a genius decision in hindsight.
3. The Tour decides to allow the riders to participate in the Tour, pending more evidence. In this scenario, the ultimate winner is later implicated. Bad for the Tour, and bad for the sport.
4. The Tour decides to ban the suspected riders from the tour. They are later cleared.

Here's the rub. If Scenario 4 should come true, while it would be terrible for this year, it could be a good thing in the long run. If athletes are not allowed to race just through involvement with a dirty doctor, it could be the one message strong enough to actually do something about doping.

Sources for the above are:
Eurosport.com
CyclingNews.com

Date: June 29
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 360
Year to date mileage: 1822

Tour fever is coming...

Not much happening lately. I've been all preoccupied watching the preparations for the Tour take place. The teams have been announcing their line-ups for the last week or so. And now it looks like Vino and the Astana-Wurth team decision will be postponed until possibly the day before the race. The Court of Arbitration for Sport is holding a hearing Thursday afternoon with a decision expected to come sometime Friday, according to Cycling News. Talk about a cliffhanger for the crazy Kazakh. I know that if Vino doesn't race, the Tour this year will be a little more dull.

Who will win? It truly is hard to say. Basso is the odds on favorite, and my gut says to go with him. So I will. I predict the GC podium will be:
"Crazy" Ivan Basso
"Pretty Boy" Floyd Landis
Jan "I didn't start training early enough. Again." Ullrich

Green jersey winner: Tom "T-Bone" Boonen
Polka dot jersey winner: Michael "self-destruction" Rasmussen
White jersey winner: Some guy I've never heard of. With a mullet.


Date: June 28
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 337
Year to date mileage: 1799

The Rain in Spain

It may not be Spain, but we had some weird rain yesterday afternoon. People kept coming up to me, the resident biking weirdo, and (a little too joyfully) telling me that it was raining really hard. Thanks, I noticed. But the beautiful thing was that between getting in the elevator to go down to the parking garage and going outside, the rain had all but stopped. I rode home through puddles and was sprinkled on one or twice, but that was the extent of it. Clean living, that's what that is.

Hey Ray, I think I might have passed your wife on the way home tonight. It took me a few blocks to put two and two together. She was riding with a polka-dot king of the mountains jersey and matching socks. But it was the bike with those fancy fenders that made my brain struggle out of it's daze and take notice. If it wasn't her, it was still a cool bike. By the time I realized it, she had apparantly turned off because I didn't see her behind me any more.

Date: June 22
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 268
Year to date mileage: 1730

Date: June 26
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 291
Year to date mileage: 1753

Date: June 27
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 314
Year to date mileage: 1776

First major trike ride.

Wednesday morning I had a Lasik screening at 8:15. I'd already told work that I didn't know how long it would take, and that I might not be in at all. The screening went well, and I'm an excellent candidate. However, I don't have the money set aside in my flex spending account. They offered me a deal if I do it before the end of June, since this is their slow time (see flex spending accounts). Figuring in the deal versus the flex account tax savings, and also the fact that I've broken my prescription sunglasses and would probably need a new set if I don't do it now, doing it now would cost me about $400 extra. We'll see. Plus, while I was in the waiting room and my eyes were dilating, I watched some woman undergo the procedure. I think that was a mistake, because it kind of freaked me out. I had shades of A Clockwork Orange running through my head as they inserted the eye speculum under her eyelids. They should probably draw the curtain when they're doing that. Ew.

So after I drove home and let the eye drops wear off, I decided to head out for a ride on the trike. My goal was to get a rear rack so I can use it for commuting. I first stopped by Hiawatha to see what they could throw together. It's such an odd bike that we weren't able to come up with a good solution. After Kevin took the trike for a spin I headed up to Calhoun Cycle via the Chain of Lakes. They didn't really have anything great either. They had one rack that probably would have worked, but it was the same price as the Sun rack and they could order the Sun rack and have it in a couple of days. I read somewhere that delayed gratification is a sign of maturity, so I decided to have them order it and wait a couple of days.

By the time I was done at Calhoun it was 3:00. I realized this is my normal leaving work time and I needed to get home to pick up the kids, pronto. So I hauled ass (helped by a nice tailwind) down the Greenway and picked up my normal commute route home on Minnehaha Ave. I made it home about 10 minutes earlier than normal, but I was also starting from a different location and had no red lights to worry about on the Greenway. I have no idea how fast I was going, but it felt fast. But I think there's something about being that close to the ground that heightens the sensation of speed. Because I'm not a fast guy.

When the day was done I'd put in 28 miles, according to the gmaps pedometer site. A pretty fair trial for the trike. And I did it with next to nothing, supply-wise. I took off with my phone, my cash card, and my garage door opener. No bags, no water bottles, no spare tubes, nothing. I covered bike paths, bike lanes and general on streen riding. And I enjoyed the heck out of the trike on all three. Now if I could only figure out a way to take it camping with me this weekend...

Date: June 21
Mileage: 28
Ride type: Shopping/Test Ride
June mileage: 245
Year to date mileage: 1707

Up again, down again

Yesterday morning I was making my way up Highway 13 on my way in to work. As I neared the top of the hill I looked over my left shoulder to see if the road was clear. It usually is at 5am, but I check anyway. In my peripheral vision I noticed something was actually on my shoulder. I looked again and it was a dragonfly (or damselfly, I never can tell). It was just hanging out, hitchhiking along. I crossed 13 and headed up Sibley Memorial Highway. I looked over my shoulder again, and it was still there. As I approached highway 55 I checked one more time. Still there. This is about three miles of riding with this bug on my back. It was cool. Once I reached 55 I slowed down and turned to get on the path so I could cross the bridge. The fly took this as a good place to disembark, because when I checked my shoulder at the top of the hill it was gone. When most commuters encounter a dragonfly, it's as a smear on their windshield, not as a passenger. It was a nice brush-with-nature kind of moment that made me feel good the rest of the way in.

After showering at the downtown Y, I was approached by a homeless guy. He came toward me with a bus transfer in his hand. I'd been scammed by the "hey mister, I just need one dollar so I can take the bus to visit my sick kid/sister/mother" approach when I was naive and new to working downtown. After that, my policy has been that I don't give money to the homeless. After working in downtown Minneapolis for 9 years, I can usually tell who really needs some help and who's looking for quick cash. This guy didn't need help. In Minneapolis, most of the ones who are working the prime commuter hours are doing just that, working. He thrust the bus transfer at me and grunted. I said, "No, sorry, I don't want the transfer." and tried to move off. He grunted again in a way that made me think he couldn't speak. He pointed at the transfer, and written in ball point it said "my dad died, please help, god bless" I was tempted, but even if I wanted to I didn't have any cash so again I said "No thanks, sorry." I started to pull my bike out of the rack. At this point he realized I wasn't buying. As he walked away he said, very clearly and with decent enunciation, "Fuck off, bike fag."

Date: June 20
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 217
Year to date mileage: 1679

Nature Valley

If you read this blog, odds are that you're a bike junkie. Odds are also pretty good that you're based out of Minneapolis. And if either of the above (or both) is true, you already know about the big excitement on Friday night. Thanks to other, better, Minneapolis bloggers who post about current events in a timely manner.

So while my wife and kids were out milking cows, I was doing what I do best. Drinking beer at a pub and watching bikes. I hung out at the Local with my Cat3 buddy Ken and some of his friends getting warmed up for the race. It was a lovely Friday afternoon, perfect for beers on the outdoor patio just a stone's throw from the start/finish line. Then, everything went to hell. During the first wave of the storm, Ken, Shawn and John stayed outside and bravely hung on to one of the patio umbrellas. But the 65 mph wind proved too much and ripped it from their grasp, sending the umbrella flying down the street and them racing for the bar.

Once the front moved through the women's race began. And then the skies started to darken just in time for the men's race. I stayed outside and watched both, getting drenched to the bone during the men's. But since I had to ride my bike home eventually, it didn't bother me much. After the race I bid Ken and crew farewell and squelched my way back to work to get my bike. I hopped the light rail and found that the air conditioning was working overtime. So I rode the train until the a/c caused my teeth to start to chatter, and got off at 50th Street station. It was about this time I realized that I had no headlight and the batteries were dead on my taillight. But it was a glorious ride. Dark and rainy, sure. But there was enough ambient light that I could see everything in my way. And the rain was a damn sight warmer than the train had been. I stuck to the bike trail the entire way home, due to my lack of lighting, and made it home by 10:00. A late dinner, some reading and then off to bed. We woke up the next morning to find the power had gone out (Dad, the light in the bathroom doesn't work!). We took off for the in-laws' place Saturday morning for Father's Day weekend and didn't get back until about 9 last night.

You can see the rest of the photos I took at flickr. These aren't the best of the best, mind you. This is all I got. When I pulled my camera out of my bag Friday it started giving me a low battery indicator immediately. So I was able to get a grand total of 11 shots.

Date: June 19
Mileage: 19
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 194
Year to date mileage: 1656

Nature Valley, here I come

Yesterday, my wife unwittingly gave me a great Father's Day present. She asked if we could switch schedules today. This doesn't sound like much on the surface, but hear me out. During the summer, I'm the early bird. I get up early and ride in so I'm at work by 6:30. This means I can leave work by 3 and pick the kids up from daycare. This also meant that today I couldn't hang around downtown and watch the Nature Valley Grand Prix after work.

A few months ago our girls started asking if they could see cows being milked. As luck would have it, Nancy's grandparents have a working dairy farm. So this afternoon she and the girls will be heading down to Henderson to see where milk comes from and I'll be watching professional bike racing. Sometimes, things work out so well it's hardly believeable. If you're going, I'll be the dorky looking guy. No, not that one, the other one.

In trike news, I took the trike out last night for a spin. A more mature, controlled spin. Didn't want to end up with another batch of road rash. I rode it up the longest hill of my commute, the stretch of Highway 13 between 494 and the Big River Regional Trail. While I was geared down extremely low and going extremely slowly, it wasn't horrible. I probably put in 2 miles or so, and had a blast.

Date: June 15
Mileage: 25
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 175
Year to date mileage: 1637

OK, so, trike

Lots of suspense since the last post. New trike, injuries, what happened? How could I leave you hanging for two days? Easy, I've been busy. Sorry 'bout that.

Yes, I got a new trike. I found a good deal on a Sun EZ-Tad recumbent trike. Thanks to Jon for pointing out the craigslist ad! So I met the guy Monday after work, took a test ride around his parking lot and took it home. Here's the skinny. The bike was purchased new in January this year. He did some winter ice riding on it, but not much else. He's got the extra-wide 2.1 tires, fenders, and a rear view mirror added. Other than that, it's bone stock. And totally sweet.

Now the next question is, how does one go about crashing on a trike? Easier than I thought imaginable. Once I got home I took the trike onto the dead-end street behind our house with my kids. They were riding their bikes around and wanted to race. Of course, they were trying to take advantage of their old man by starting the race while I was still facing the other direction. So I gunned it forward and hooked a hard left hand turn. During the turn, the left wheel came off the ground. So there I am, two-wheeling it. No problem. But, soon enough I've got to straighten this thing out. So I reached for the brake. Nothing doing. I'm not in trike-think just yet, apparently. I squeezed the left brake lever, but since it has left and right braking and the left tire was off the ground, it had no effect. I'm not sure what happened at that point, but I overbalanced somehow and ended up sitting on the pavement. The moral of the story? Don't get suckered by a 7 year old. And because I know you're concerned, the trike is fine.

Jim's comment about me being all road rashed up at work was very humorous. Especially since I've had like 6 people in the last day come up to me and say, "What did you do to yourself? Did you crash your bike??" I tell them yes, I crashed. I even tell them that I was goofing off with the kids. But what I don't mention to most of them is that I was riding a three-wheeler...

Date: June 13
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 127
Year to date mileage: 1589

Date: June 14
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 150
Year to date mileage: 1612

Boy, am I cool

Who could possibly crash on a trike? Me, that's who.


My wife said, "I think you'd better take a few practice rides before you take that to work." I'm thinking she's a smart woman.

Date: June 8
Mileage: 19
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 79
Year to date mileage: 1541

Date: June 12
Mileage: 25
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 104
Year to date mileage: 1566

The Kindness of Strangers

I pulled the Jamis out of my bike quiver this morning, intending to make up for the fact that I didn't ride it yesterday. Yesterday when I left there was a 30% chance of showers and the skies looked vaguely threatening. So I took the Schwinn. And of course, it didn't rain on me. It's funny because in most situations I'm pleased when I don't get rained on, but when I ride a bike specifically because it might rain I feel a little put out when the weather fails to make good on it's side of the bargain.

As the kids and I waited for the bus I transferred all of my gear from the pannier to the messenger bag, because I still haven't decided if I want to put a rear rack on the Jamis. The bus arrived, kids boarded, and I took off. I had ridden about half a mile when I heard a semi-loud popping sound. I immediately thought, "I've been shot!" I blame this response on the fact that I'd stayed up late last night watching Reservoir Dogs. I don't want to ruin the ending if you haven't seen it, but suffice it to say that there's a lot of shooting.

Once I came to my senses, I realized I'd flatted. I pulled the bike over to the side and pulled off the back wheel. In no time, I had the tube out. I felt like the father in A Christmas Story. "Four minutes. Time me." I opened up the messenger bag and realized I didn't have a tube for this bike. Oh Fudge. OK then, I'll just patch it. As I got the patch kit out I realized my pump was still in the pannier. This time I didn't say "Fudge." I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word!

So, I sucked it up, put the tire back on the rim and the wheel back on the bike. I repacked the messenger bag, turned around and started walking home. I hadn't gone far when an older guy in a van who was turning into the golf course stopped and asked if I needed a lift. We threw my bike in the back and I was home in 30 seconds. Beats walking. I stashed the Jamis, pulled out the Schwinn and was only 15 minutes late to work. So a big thanks go out to the guy in the blue minivan.

On my way home from work I made a quick stop at Hiawatha and bought two new tubes from Jim along with a frame pump. No rest for the wicked.

In other news, I just found my trike on eBay for only $975, and free shipping! A brand new 2005 model. Good gravy, what a deal!

Date: June 6
Mileage: 19
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 60
Year to date mileage: 1522

Test Rides

Sure sure, I rode my bike today. But y'all don't really care about that. No, I'm sure you've been feverishly waiting since yesterday's post to figure out, "Which bikes did he ride at Erik's?" Step right up, here's the 411.

I went to Erik's for a specific reason, which I'll get to soon enough. But for some background, I've been doing a lot of thinking about recumbents. The idea appeals more and more. Don't get me wrong, I like my diamond frames. I'm not planning on giving them up. But it would be nice to have an option. Something...different. So that's what I rode.

First ride: The Burley Canto, priced at $1149

After doing hours worth of internet research, I had thought the best thing in a recumbent would be a short-wheelbase (SWB) bike. The SWB is supposed to be extra zippy and responsive, perfect for commuting. And since about 90% of my miles come from commuting that's my primary focus. After a quick primer from Mike the bike store guy, I took it out. It took two quick pushes of my right foot to get rolling, and then I started pedaling. And nearly immediately, I realized that a short-wheelbase recumbent is a squirrely creature. Every little jiggle of the handlebars had me swerving and thinking I was going to crash. The adreneline was flowing through me for the entire ride, and not in a good way.

Pros: Nice ride, extremely responsive. I'm sure I would get used to the squirrely nature after a while. Plus, it's configured so that it can be set up as short wheelbase or long. There's a second headset up front, and one can just move the front wheel up there. Nice idea, good thinking Burley.
Cons: Scary, scary, scary to ride. Makes me wonder if I'd ever convert it back to a SWB after riding it LWB.

Second ride: Sun EZ-1 Recumbent, priced at $579

Based on what I saw on the 'net, I never thought a long wheelbase (LWB) recumbent would appeal to me. All the reports say that they're slow. Perhaps it was just the relief after riding the Canto, but I truly enjoyed the EZ-1. It's a smooth feeling ride and made me very confident immediately. But it is slow. I was just tootling about in the residential neighborhood behind Erik's in Burnsville (which may have some of the heaviest bike traffic in the area, due to the test rides), and even after 10 minutes I was comfortable enough to just about have it topped out gear-wise.

Pros: Stable, forgiving and a pleasure to ride.
Cons: Slow. Even during the test ride, I could already see the possibility of getting bored with this one. It would be nice for a ride with the wife and kids, but not much more than that.

Third ride: Sun EZ-Tad, priced at $1169.

This was the main reason I came. I knew they stocked trikes, and I really wanted to try one out. It did not disappoint. This thing was insanely fun to ride. I had it out for probably 25 minutes, completely permagrinned the whole time. It's like a cross between a bike and one of those go-karts at the raceway. Fast, fun, and wild. But I never felt out of control. I loved the under-seat steering. I also really liked the idea that, when you stop for a red light (or anything else) you literally don't have to do anything but stop. You can stay clipped in. It was weird not having to put a foot down, but extremely cool. This is the funnest (I know, it's not a word) thing on wheels I think I've ever ridden.

Pros: Fun, fun, fun! And fast. And fun! And, wow.
Cons: Heavy. I'm not a weight weenie, so it doesn't bother me. My Raleigh weighs about 50 pounds with my pannier on it, which is what this bike weighs (with no pannier). But it the weight just wasn't a factor. The biggest con for me was the SRAM components. The rear derailleur was plastic. Not just the cogs, but even the cage that holds the cogs. Doesn't seem very good, long term. But I could always upgrade these and put the plastic stuff on the Raleigh. At least it won't rust in the winter like the stuff that's on there now did.

I'd given my credit card to Mike to secure the test rides, and it was incredibly tempting to roll in the door on the trike and say "Sold!" It was my birthday, after all. We received a small, unexpected windfall a week or so ago. Nancy immediately bought a heck of a nice lens for her camera and told me I could take some of it and get "a bike or something." But this might be a little more than she was thinking of...

Date: June 5
Mileage: 15
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 41
Year to date mileage: 1503

Today is your day...

It didn't seem like much on paper, but I had a pretty nice little weekend. Saturday afternoon we had a proper birthday party for out girls, who turned 7 last week. There were 7 birthday guests. We played a rousing version of pin the tail on the donkey, had a pinata, the girls swam in the pool and jumped on the trampoline. Vast quantities of candy, pop, cookies, chips and cupcakes were consumed. We sent them home tired, smiling, and jacked on sugar.

Nancy wasn't feeling well, so as soon as the party was over the girls and I jumped in the van and headed north to the city of granite, St. Cloud, to visit some friends. The girls all played together, the grown-ups grilled, drank beer, had a fire and hot tubbed. A delightfully low key evening. We stayed up way too late and were woken way too early by the kid the next morning.

Once we safely arrived back in the Twin Cities today, I headed downtown with my buddy Sparky to pick up some shelving from MPR. I felt vaguely guilty about listening to Jack FM while in the underground parking ramp of MPR, but such is life. But Jack is a good one to inspire musical discussions amongst old friends. By the way dude, that was Patty Smythe with Scandal who sang The Warrior. I remembered it this afternoon while fritzing about. No google required.

After moving the shelving I headed home to check in on the wife and kids. No change in any situations, so I headed out to Target to get some essentials. And Reservoir Dogs (on sale for $7.50). And a semi-obnoxious patterned shirt. Happy birthday to me! After finishing up at Target I cruised down to Erik's. I spent about an hour there test riding recumbents. Holy smokes was that fun. I have got to get me one of those. Then when I got home I cooked up some tacos and beans, had a beer, bathed the kids, read them a story, and sat on the patio for a while.

Life. Sometimes, it seems pretty darn awesome. Had the Mrs. been feeling better, it would have been close to perfect.



Date: June 2
Mileage: 16
Ride type: Commute
June mileage: 16
Year to date mileage: 1478

Organization

Happiness is an organized garage. I spent a couple hours moving stuff around this afternoon and ended up with this. Insert contented sigh here.




Date: May 26
Mileage: 19
Ride type: Commute
May mileage: 275
Year to date mileage: 1462

Liberty Seguros pulls sponsorship

If you haven't been following the Giro lately, you may have missed the big bombshell that dropped today. Liberty Seguros announced Thursday it's immediately ending its multi-million-dollar sponsorship with the ProTour team while Spanish authorities are reporting that as many as 200 riders and athletes could be implicated in a widespread doping network. Liberty made a good faith effort to support the sport of cycling. Roberto Heras was caught red-handed with EPO last year, and they stood by the team. But when the team manager himself, Manolo Saiz, was caught with a bag of frozen blood and over 60,000 Euro that was the end of their short lived foray into sponsoring pro cycling.

There's a part of me that understands why cyclists do it. It's the part of me that's currently tired. Tired of riding, tired of working, tired of doing much of anything right now. I need a break. Pro riders need breaks too. But when you're getting paid big money to ride your bike, you get on and ride. And you ride through the pain, and the tiredness. And maybe you think it's OK to just take a little something. Something to take the edge off, help you get over the hump. Plus, nearly everybody else is doing it. How else can they compete at this level?

There's also a part of me that's pissed off. It's so damn stupid, this constant shadow that pro cycling has to labor under. Every time the cycling community seems to be putting out a consistent 'doping is bad' message something like this seems to come along and pull the rug out from under that. Like the Festina fiasco in 1998. And countless other smaller charges. Like Heras. Don't they get it? If this keeps up, more and more sponsors may pull a Liberty and pull out. There won't be a pro cycling circut left to compete on.

And who gets hurt? Everybody. Last year Alexandre Vinokourov, tired of playing second fiddle to an aging Jan Ullrich, jumped ship from T-mobile to Liberty Seguros hoping to become the main contender for his team in July in the Tour. The plucky little bastard was a thorn in many of the Tour's GC leaders on more than one occasion, and that was without his team's full support. Imagine how much fun it was going to be to watch him attack with a team surrounding him. But now that Seguros is out, it's questionable whether he'll even get the opportunity to ride in the Tour this year. Odds are good that if he does, it won't be as the lead rider for a team but instead back in a supporting role. This lessens the race for everybody, athletes and fans alike.

It's hard to say whether sport can truly be drug free in this day and age. There are so many enhancers being developed, and it's impossible to test for them all. Barry Bonds just surpassed Babe Ruth's home run record. In the eyes of many, it will be a tainted record because of his drug use. Mark McGuire is living with the same issue. If Lance Armstrong is ever proven guilty of doping, legions of fans will villify him. But it was probably the same back at the original Olympics, and even further back when the first caveman decided to race his buddy to that tree over on the next hill. I'm sure that, while EPO and anabolic steroids didn't exist, since the beginning of sport athletes have looked for an edge. Whether it was something as simple as trying to get a slight advantage at the starting line in a foot race to spending millions of dollars doing wind tunnel testing of bicycles and riding positions. We're human beings, and to some level or another we're competitive by nature. It just seems that we never know when to say it's too much. Another human trait, I guess.

E85 rant

My dearest Nancy made me watch 4 hours worth of 10.5: Apocalypse between Sunday night and last night. It's our special bond. She loves the campy disaster movies and I make fun of them with her. According to NBC's website the entire movie was filmed in High Definition, which "achieves a whole new level of visual affects and style that has not previously been achieved on network television." Frankly, they should probably work on their HD technique if they want people to buy more HDTV. I thought most of the effects (I hesitate to use the adjective 'special' in this case) were low quality CGI. I actually turned to Nancy at one point and said, "That effect could have been a little more special."

After watching four hours of any major network, it's pretty easy to see who's paying their bills. The big push we both noticed came from Chevy. And Chevy, in a desperate attempt to convince people that buying gigantic SUVs is still OK, is pushing E85 like there's no tomorrow. This prompted several discussions between us about how much petroleum it really takes to make E85. We both knew it was a fair amount. It turns out it's damn near 1 to 1. Hillary Clinton wants to have E85 at half of the gas stations in the U.S. by the year 2015. But does this make sense? Not really, according to The Oil Drum (nicely summarized by Cyclelicious below:

Our annual gasoline consumption is up to almost 140 billion gallons. That means on a BTU equivalent basis, converting the entire US corn crop into ethanol would amount to 13.4% of our annual gasoline demand. It takes 77,228 BTUs of fossil fuel inputs to make 83,961 BTUs of "green, renewable" ethanol. That means that in reality, using our entire corn crop would only displace 1% of our annual gasoline consumption. We can't possibly produce enough E85 to justify putting in all those pumps.

OK, so maybe it's just a fair trade. But E85 burns cleaner than oil, so that should make it better even if it's no more efficient, right? Perhaps. I might buy that arguement if there were more than 700 places in the entire country where you can buy E85 (200 are in Minnesota alone, leaving approximately 10 stations for each of the remaining 49 states). So even if your new Silverado is E85 ready, you can't hardly buy the stuff if you want to. And the best part? E85 is actually decreasing the overall fuel economy of the average car. How? This is a two part answer.

The first part involves Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE). CAFE, in simple terms, mandates that the cars made by a manufacturer need to meet an average MPG of 27.5 mpg. So for every 14mpg Silverado that gets manufactured, the company needs to make a 41 mpg Aveo to offset it. Under the Alternative Motor Fuels Act (AMFA), auto manufacturers receive a 1.2 mile per gallon credit toward their CAFE requirements. So instead of making that Aveo get 41mpg, now it only needs to get 39.8. But since E85 isn't widely available, most of these vehicles are running on plain old gas. And the manufacturers know this will be the case. So they design the cars to run better on gas than on E85. Wouldn't want somebody to buy an E85 vehicle, not be able to find E85, put regular in and then think the performance sucks. So the 1.2 mpg credit simply amounts to vehicles that have an average CAFE of 1.2 mpg less.

The second part, where it really gets fun, is when people actually do make an effort to use E85. "The flex-fuel Chevrolet Impala equipped with a 3.5-liter V-6 engine gets an EPA-estimated 23/31 mpg (city/highway) on gasoline and 16/21 mpg when burning E85" according to cars.com. Plus E85 costs more, mile per mile. cars.com estimates that if gas costs $3 per gallon, E85 would need to be priced at $2.15 per gallon for a motorist to break even due to the decreased mileage.

So Chevy, thanks but no thanks on the Flex Fuel Vehicles. I'll keep burning up brontasaurauses until somebody comes up with something better. And riding my bike.

Bike to Work recap

All in all, I thought Bike To Work Day was a great success. Many of the vendors ran out of food and drink, which to me indicates that there were more people there than they planned for. I was lucky enough to get a cup of Peace Coffee before it ran out, plus a granola bar and a spinach gorgonzola quiche bite from Birchwood. I didn't end up with nearly as much free stuff as last year. There were no multi-tools and no water bottle giveaways that I saw. No t-shirts either.

The prizes that were being drawn were way better this year than last year. Kevin won a water bottle. While it may not sound like much, it was the first drawing-type event he had ever won. And it truly does pay to be present to win. There were many folks whose names were drawn but were not there to claim their prizes. As a result the organizers had a surplus of prizes. They drew names for quite some time before finally opening it up to anybody who was left. After just about everybody in attendance had gone up, I visited the prize table. I ended up with a $25 gift certificate to Trailhead Cycling. It should be a good excuse to ride up to Champlin some weekend.

It was great to have Kevin show up (even though he wasn't working that day) and it was also great to finally meet Karl. I also enjoyed meeting the other riders, most of whose names I don't remember. City Counselman Peter McLaughlin was on the ride too. We set a great pace, riding about 15mph all the way in. While I'm no slouch on the bike, Kevin and Karl made me feel a bit like a slacker by riding their single speed and fixies, respectively. I've got the parts, I really need to single out the Raleigh. The gears on it aren't doing any good anyway. Either that or I need to get serious about getting the orange Gitane rolling. Now that I've got an extra wheelset I don't have an excuse not to.

Because it's not only bike to work day, but also Bike Home From Work Day I took the long way home. I crossed over the river at Franklin Ave and rode East River Road home rather than taking West River Road. It adds about 5 miles to my commute by sending me down Shepard Road to 35E and then down into Lilydale. But it was a beautiful afternoon and the change of scenery was welcome. It's nice to mix it up a little every once in a while.

Date: May 19
Mileage: 30
Ride type: Commute
May mileage: 256
Year to date mileage: 1443

God I love people

So I'm riding down 7th Street in downtown Minneapolis this morning. I'm coming up on 3rd Ave, which is where lots of cars turn right. I'm in the right lane, as there's no bike lane on this street. As we approach the corner, there's a car who want's to turn right. Problem is, he's not in the right lane. So of course, he cuts me off. It wasn't one of those 'so close I about crap myself' cut offs, but more of an annoying 'why couldn't you just wait and pull in behind me' cut offs. The light changes to green and he starts his turn. Because he cut me off, I'm right behind him. But, there's a pedestrian who wants to cross. So he slams on the brakes. I rear ended him. Not hard, just enough to make his eyes get really big in the rear view mirror. His plastic bumper made quite a racket, but no harm done. Fool.

Date: May 18
Mileage: 25
Ride type: Commute
May mileage: 226
Year to date mileage: 1413

Friday's Bike to Work routes

Because the TMO site is just a tad disorganized, in my opinion, here are the official starting points for the six Minneapolis Bike to Work day routes this Friday. And if you're lucky enough to live in North Minneapolis, you get to ride in with the fittest Mayor in America, R.T. Ryback himself, on the newly striped North Minneapolis bike lanes.

Routes and starting points:
North Minneapolis - Webber Park
NorthEast Minneapolis - The Quarry Mall
Midtown/Cedar Lake - Hoigaard's parking lot/Midtown Greenway trailhead
South Minneapolis - Bryant Ave S & Minnehaha Parkway
SouthEast Minneapolis - Minnehaha Park pavilion
Park Avenue - Park Ave S & Minnehaha Parkway
University Avenue - University Ave & Prior Ave (Menard's parking lot)


Here is a link to some very nice PDF documents that contain a map of each route, and also the written directions as well.
Bike Route Maps

On a completely different note, today was gorgeous. Temps were in the upper 60s-lower 70s, sort of cool if you're just standing around but perfect if you're active. Mostly sunny skies, and a 10-15 mph tailwind. The kind of days cyclists dream about. It doesn't get any better than this.

Date: May 17
Mileage: 25
Ride type: Commute
May mileage: 201
Year to date mileage: 1388

Filthy Sanchez

When it comes to facial hair, I've done it all. Moustache, goatee (both half and full goat), Frazier Crane-style beard, full beard, 90210-style sideburns, giant porkchop sideburns, mutton chops. The gamut. The full spectrum. When my wife and I first met, I was clean shaven. Or, clean shaven by my standards. Meaning no cultivated hair arrays of the type mentioned above. But daily shaving? Not so much. When my wife to be saw a picture of me with a goatee (taken at approximately 4:00am after drinking waaay too much beer) she promptly told me I could never grow a goatee again. A few years later I did, and she actually learned to like it. I'm back to (mostly) bald at the current moment. Probably OK for someone who works in Corporate America and has frequent interactions with members of the PTA.

However, I like change. A week or so ago my wife was on the phone with somebody and I heard her say, "I told Pete he can never grow a moustache." Hmmm, sounds like a challenge doesn't it? But she's safe in this instance. I have a picture, buried somewhere, of me with a moustache. It's not good. I don't need to carry the picture with me, a la Jimmy James (Yep, that is me with a mustache. I carry this with me whenever I can, so if I ever get the urge to make myself over, I just look at this, and damn near throw up.) because I can remember the details quite clearly. I'm sitting on a couch in my friend Tim's apartment. I'm wearing a paper sombrero from some local Mexican place. I had a bottle of Pfeiffer in my hand. It is damn near enough to make me throw up.

So in an effort to quash any potential leaning toward growing hair, I finally put the moustache bars on the Schwinn.

Date: May 30
Mileage: 14
Ride type: Commute
May mileage: 289
Year to date mileage: 1476