Night Riding

Lately I've realized that although I'm often reluctant and grouchy getting on my bike to ride in to work, I've come to enjoy the ride home at night, even with the dark and bad weather. All the irritations of the day fall behind, the lights of houses and cars flash by on either side, and I skim along the road, breathing deep, blowing the workday's tedium, frustration, worry and aggravation out of my mind.

Smith Road, where I turn off the northbound road to cross over the freeway, before turning on to the final stretch inside Ferndale city limits, has been a significant leg of the ride this winter. Last weekend my odometer turned 2000 miles on the Smith Road overpass. That's since I bought my new Surly back in August, meaning I've averaged about 280 miles a month over the past seven months, mostly in the winter. And I had my first flat tire on the new bike on Smith Road one night in September.

Friday night I had a not so pleasant encounter as I approached the intersection of Northwest and Smith Roads. A car coming through the intersection with super-bright halogen headlights on high-beam almost blinded me. I squinted and looked aside, but with glare on the wet pavement and puddles along the road side, I couldn't see the edge of the lane. I ran into the curb at less than 10mph, but it was a jarring stop that knocked my rear wheel crooked. My tail-light blew apart, too. The batteries fell out and the red cover landed in the car lane, where it was immediately run over and crushed. I only had to open the quick-release to put the on wheel straight, but I'll have to do without a real tail-light until spring. Or maybe when my REI dividend comes in.

Dream of the desert

Spring is trying to break through, but the storms have made it impossible to see the sky most days. Somehow March rain seems more saturating than in other months. Last Friday my feet got wet riding in to work, and my shoes were still damp at the end of the day. Didn't really matter, because I got drenched on the way home. I was wearing a pair of well-worn, two-or-three-year-old Pearl Izumi mesh mountain biking shoes, which I usually like in the rain because even though they're not much protection, at least they dry out quickly. But they were still soggy on Sunday morning, and so nasty and stanky that I took them straight out to the dumpster.
It's coming up on one year since I started my coffee shop job, and I've been remembering back to the cold wind and rain storms of last year. Last year was worse. I was dreaming then about going on an Adventure Cycling tour of Death Valley, and now I'm wishing I'd signed up, but they've already sold out three trips. Anyhow, I've got to last a full year before I can think about vacation, and even though I've been squirreling away my tip money I don't have much savings.  I can only dream of the desert in spring.

Star-gazing

Every night this past week I've been distracted with star-gazing on my ride home from work. There's been a crescent moon, and I recognized Venus near it, but tonight another larger bright light appeared. Jupiter, according to a Google news item I just read, and Mercury and Mars should show up soon, too. Sunday night was clear, cold and windy - snow is threatening again - but it's been a treat to see the planets on my way home. I'd never have noticed them if I wasn't out on my bike at night, and I'm too lazy and comfort-loving to bundle up and go out in the cold just to look for them.

PART II - March 9

Last week the crescent moon and planets were to the northwest as I rode home. Last night there was a big yellow full moon near the horizon to the southeast, so it was behind me where I couldn't see it most of the way.

This sky-watching is an interesting change from the first year I tried bicycle-commuting. Then I lived near the intersection of Lakeway and Lincoln Streets, worked near Bellis Fair Mall, at the corner of Meridian and Bakerview, and was taking a community college class by Cordata Parkway. Meaning I rode from Whatcom County's second worst area for vehicle and pedestrian accidents, to the first worst. Sometimes in the morning I would ride down one-way Holly Street through downtown. Once I got through the first light at Ellis Street, I could get going down the hill at the speed of traffic, and ride along among the cars, while keeping a sharp look out for drivers making right turns, or cruising for parking, or trucks stopping to make morning deliveries. It was an exhilarating half-mile that got my adrenaline going so I arrived at work or school feeling lively and alert.

I also felt a lot more twitchy and defensive, though. Now when I have a good tailwind on the way home, I can kind of zone out riding in the dark. I'm surprised when I find myself on the Smith Road overpass, heading in to the home stretch to Ferndale.

Whip It

This is not what real women look like

When I was in my early teens I read a book about a girl near my age (early junior high/middle schoolish). She was an outdoorsy, tom-boyish type who lived outside a small town and enjoyed normal, active kid things like baseball, climbing trees, riding horses and chasing frogs in ditches. But she had recently had her bedroom redecorated in frilly pale-pink and white French provincial, and was beginning to find her old interests embarrassing. Over the summer, a new family moves in down the road, with a boy of her age. Expected to be friends, they are awkward and tongue-tied when introduced, and when they're left alone they quickly become sulky and argumentative, get into a fight, and have to be separated by their parents. This is, of course, because they are attracted to each other, but are too young and naive to recognize their true feelings (so are their parents, but I got it right away). So they spend most of the summer moping, day-dreaming, but avoiding each other, and quarreling when they meet.

Eventually the girl's mother decides to have a heart-to-heart with her, the one starting out "your're getting older now, and going through a lot of changes . . . " Mom comes in to the pink and white bedroom where Girl has been sulking all afternoon, carrying a pink and white paper bag from the local ladies' boutique, and says, "I think you should begin wearing these . . . a brassiere and a tight little girdle." Girl has a shrieking temper tantrum, throws the bag against the wall, and slams out of the room.

Later on Boy comes over, bashfully apologizes for acting like a jerk, and invites the girl to the community club dance coming up at the end of the summer. She accepts, then drifts dreamily upstairs to her pink and white room, to try on her new bra and girdle.

This is Victoria's Secret:  with the right lingerie, a girl is ready for anything.

I was so disgusted I would have thrown the book across the room, if it hadn't been from the library.

In case you're wondering what any of this has to do with bicycling, think of the difficulty most women have getting used to the idea of wearing spandex cycling shorts with no underwear. Once we start riding frequently, or going on longer recreational rides, we find a little padding is necessary - in the shorts, but it really has no use in bras. But there is no style of underwear that won't make panty lines under spandex, except maybe thongs, and I don't even want to begin to imagine how those would feel after twenty miles in the saddle.

During the dark winter months, when I amused myself with watching DVDs on my intimate 9x17 inch computer screen, I found an antidote to this stuff, and a welcome addition to the sadly limited young-woman-coming-of-age genre. Whip It, starring Ellen Page and directed by Drew Barrymore, has nothing to do with bicycling, but it is the story of a rambunctious, non-conformist, but otherwise normal, ordinary young woman finding a path to independence on wheels. In this case, the wheels are roller skates, and the heroine lies about her age to create a new identity as Babe Ruthless, a member of the Hurl Scouts roller-derby team.

For anyone still mystified by the depths of the female psyche, I also recommend The Devil Wears Prada, a more traditional chick-flick about a young journalism grad (Anne Hathaway) who temporarily sells herself to the fashion industry. Plus, the DVD includes clips demonstrating the hazards of high-heeled shoes.

Here Comes the Sun - 2012

Monday while I was at Starbucks they played George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun." It sent me off on a nostalgia trip so intense it was almost psychedelic. I sat staring out the window at the dirty, wet street, smiling and teary-eyed.

Then this morning, there it was:  blue sky and sunshine. I put every thing else aside, got out my camera, got on my bike, and went out to take pictures of it.

This looks like a golf course, but it's really pasture, with fir and cedar trees.

Windstorms bring down older trees and branches,
making trail riding interesting in the spring.

Another architectural eccentric

Snow on the Cascade Mountains and foothills, but only remnants left in the ditches down in the flatlands. In the center of the photo is the Cargill grain elevator, a few blocks from my apartment in downtown Ferndale.

Random Notes on Snow Commuting

It's quite likely that one week of snow is all Whatcom County will have this winter, but the wind continues stronger and longer than usual. One storm produced gusts up to 65mph; sustained winds of 25-35mph are normal, with gusts in the 45-55mph range. My lights flickered once during a storm, and last Monday the electricity was out for about four hours, but that turned out to be because someone has messed with the main switch outside my apartment.

So now that spring is on the way, here are some lessons I've learned about riding in snow:

Most days I was loading my bike on the bus to get in to work, then riding all the way home at night, when there is no bus service to Ferndale. One night the eight-mile trip home took almost two hours, instead of 35-40 minutes; then I was awake past midnight because I was so fired up from the ride. Riding in headwinds slowed me down, too. A couple of times I had to stop on the road because the headwind was too strong to fight, and on freeway overpasses I had to put my head down to my handlebars to keep from getting blown sideways.

Wear lots of layers and cover your head and face. Wicking inner layer, at least one fleece layer, wind and rain resistant tights, leg warmers, with baggy rain pants and a rain jacket over all. Plus layers of gloves and socks, but not too tight. I gave up on cycling shoe covers and wore a pair of Totes rain boots, which were fine in the snow but not so good in rain. Put your pants cuffs over your boots or shoe covers, otherwise rain or melted snow will run straight into your shoes.

Stay in middle gears and keep your speed steady, don't try to accelerate, stop or turn suddenly. On fresh snow or smooth packed snow on level ground, you can get to ripping along pretty fast with very little effort, which is really fun. Then just as you're thinking, "Hey, this is easy. I'm GOOD!" a car will pull out or a light will turn red close in front of you and you'll discover how suddenly you can lose control.

Ride with your lights on, even during the day, and don't assume car drivers are in control. I mentioned before how instructive it can be to examine the tire tracks of cars sliding on the road - sometimes gravity and momentum take over. Watch out for the other guy, don't try to beat cars through intersections, listen for cars coming up behind you, and be ready to get out of the way if they seem to be drifting toward you.

If one of your tires is worn or has smoother tread, put the one with more tread on the front wheel. My first thought was that I'd want more tread on the rear "drive" wheel, but you need it on the front "steering" wheel.

A few years ago, when I was riding between Lakeway Center and Slater Road, a late snow storm came up in the afternoon, so I rode home without really being well prepared for it. Along the way, I noticed my bike seemed to be skipping a few beats - I was pedaling steadily, but the rear wheel didn't catch sometimes. After about five miles, I could only pedal a few strokes before I'd be spinning my feet around with the back wheel just drifting, not engaging at all. By this time I was in town, near the Broadway fire station, so I just walked the last mile or two home. My best guess was that the rear hub wasn't sealed properly; as I rode friction melted the snow piled up around the gears, and water seeped inside until the wheel and the gears didn't engage at all. This turned out to be an $85 repair job, which I could probably do myself now, if I bought the tools as well as the parts.

True Grit

The snow lasted barely a week, beginning the evening of Sunday the 15th, through Saturday the 21st when the drizzle started.  It was a tiring week for me, though I'm now convinced my new bike was a wise investment.  I'd been riding my snow-equipped K2 hybrid to keep my new bike nice, but by Saturday I was having such terrible back and leg pain and cramping, I wasn't sure I could make it through my shift.  I'm scheduled for some ten-hour days in the next few weeks, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to take it.  On Sunday, when the roads were mostly clear but gritty, I got back on my Surly.  By the time I got to work my spine was beginning to un-kink and my leg felt stronger.

I'm still resting and recovering this week.  I'm sad to think of retiring the K2, but the difference in the fit is so dramatic I think it's time.  And the Surly is payed fer now, too.