Monthly Archives: March 2011

Distracted driving- what can we do about it?

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Distracted driving is not something cyclists can live with.

Driven by our multi-tasking culture that has deemed our cars are simply 4-wheeled extensions of our work desk, our kitchen table and even entertainment center, distracted driving is unquestionably becoming worse.

Presently the law is *NOT* working, as you can sit at *ANY* intersection, anywhere, and in very little time see a number of people with phones to their ears. Easy pickings for law enforcement, if they decided to make it a priority. They (CHP anyway) claim it is a priority, but I think otherwise. A 2-officer operation could nab a huge number of offenders. For that matter, why do we have red light cameras but not cell phone cameras? True, they’d have to take a photo of every car, and a real live person would have to cull through them, but it would be a lot easier than having officers handing out tickets.

But given that it’s going to take time to change people’s attitudes while driving, what can we do in the meantime to avoid becoming a run-down-from-behind statistic? Some of it has to do with where we ride; I suspect that more-dangerous driving conditions are less-likely to see distracted drivers, because driving at those times comes closer to a full-time job. It’s when it seems like there’s little to do that people will be more-inclined to be stupid behind the wheel. Ironically that means that straighter roads and less-congestion are probably more dangerous to cyclists than we believe. Picture Canada Road vs Kings Mtn. I have yet to see someone yakking or texting on the phone on Kings (although I’m sure it does happen), but see it often on Canada.

I have questions, not answers. Bright flashing tail lights in the daytime. Good thing? Intuitively I think so, but at the same time I’ve come across a sea of flashing headlights (while riding) and found it distracting, and at some point I think distracting moves from being good (getting noticed) to being bad (taking your attention away from other things you should be seeing). Could just be a matter of how bright that flashing light is. But to effectively engage the attention of a distracted driver, is anything less than a laser pointed straight into their retina going to do the job?

I look forward to a discussion of these points, from two entirely selfish standpoints. First, I’m out there on the road myself. Second, I don’t want people to get scared away from cycling because it’s bad for business. Sadly, this is too serious a point to warrant having a smiley after it. –Mike–

This road ain’t going nowhere. Not. Let’s enjoy West-side Old LaHonda while we can!

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It’s funny the rituals you get into. When it was raining for months on end (or seemed to be), you get into the habit of waking up, opening the shades a bit and checking to see how wet the streets are. This morning, I knew it was going to be nice outside, but I still did exactly the same thing. Woke up, opened the shades a bit and expected to find wet streets. Thank goodness that’s over!

Just a few of us this morning, under bright skies with strong shadows, just the way I like it. Eric, George, Karen and, just for the run up to Skeggs, Marcus (that’s his usual gig; I don’t recall how long it’s been since he’s done the whole ride with us). A pretty easy pace up the hill, although I did try one hard interval, dropping back for a couple hundred meters and then sprinting back up to the lead group. I made it, but with nothing in the tank to spare (thanks partly to the beginning of a cold that I noticed coming on last night and can now confirm its quite real tonight).

This section of west-side Old LaHonda may not have much of a future

Road conditions were surprisingly good; most have held up well despite three solid weeks of rain. Most, not all. That crumbling section of west-side Old LaHonda is becoming narrower by the day, with a very soft, energy-sucking feel as you ride across it. There’s simply nothing supporting the asphalt they’ve dumped onto it, in a cheap attempt to keep the road intact. It’s not going to work; I got the feeling that a single truck driving over that section would be enough to do it in. There are many other areas where the surface is crumbling, but not in danger of falling away, as adjacent hillsides have slipped and basically changed the land the road sits on.

I doubt that the county has the funds to do much road reconstruction these days, and for the few homes along the road, it probably wouldn’t be too much of a hardship for them to have to either head up to Skyline or down to 84 if the road were split in two. The ideal situation for cyclists would be if there remained enough of a cow-path that we could still get through, but not cars.

The planned ride ran into some trouble today. High-water trouble!

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I’ll tackle the high-water issue in a moment. First, the planned ride (because there’s always a plan, and the plan is generally adhered to). Kevin (my son, not the pilot) was supposed to ride with me today, and wanted to do something “different.” He was bored of doing the same loop/loops over and over again, so I devised something a bit different. Below is what I came up with-

 
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Actually, that’s the ride I actually rode, and is slightly-different from the original plan. Up Old LaHonda, down the other side to LaHonda, over Haskins Grade to Pescadero (no surprises yet!) and then, instead of heading north towards Tunitas, I added a loop out to Gazos Creek & back to San Gregorio, then 84 over the hill back to Woodside, instead of the usual Tunitas Creek.

Kevin ended up not being able to ride, due to a nasty head cold, so I was out there on my own. I don’t mind riding along sometimes, but it’s unfortunate when I miss an opportunity to ride with Kevin, because after he’s been out on a bike for an hour or so, his mind clears of the fog that his epilepsy drugs create and you he becomes a lot sharper and more perceptive. That plus his riding helps keep him in shape for LaCrosse.

Cyclists heading up west-side Old LaHonda as I was heading down

While the weather was fairly nice, Old LaHonda was still wet in places and the top was very slippery, none of that being a surprise after so much rain this past month, and provided a convenient excuse for the frustrating 22 minutes, 12 seconds it took. One of those times when you keep thinking about where those 13 seconds went, because 21 minutes, 59 seconds sounds so much faster! The descent on the east side is becoming increasingly touchy as the road continues to deteriorate, plus you have to watch out for cyclists heading up, of which there were quite a few today! Then it was up over Haskins Grade to Pescadero, another source of minor frustration as I timed myself at 10 minutes, 10 seconds to the top. A lot more than the 8 minutes I used to easily climb that stretch of road, but faster than I’ve been up it recently.

No way for a bike to get to the coast from Pescadero today. Some cars weren't even brave enough to drive through this flooded section.

The run into Pescadero wouldn’t be the same if you didn’t have that small dog that runs across a huge yard to chase down cyclists. Fortunately there’s a fence between you and the dog, but I paid attention to where he comes from and it’s way, way, way at the back of a huge lot. Very impressive speed from that little guy! The next stop would normally be in Pescadero for food, but I’d decided I’d do that after returning from the southern loop down to Gazos Creek. This is when plans changed a bit; originally, I was going to ride out to the coast at Pescadero and then head south on 1, but a flooded section of the road between the town of Pescadero and the coast essentially closed the road to cyclists (not a good idea to try and ride through water that’s up to your crankset and too deep to see what you’re riding through).

Cloverdale Road between Pescadero & Gazos Creek

The easiest thing to do would have been to simply head north and do the usual Tunitas loop (again), but the plan had been to head down to Gazos Creek, and some way or other, I was going to stick to some variant of the plan. The solution was simple; ride south on Cloverdale Road instead of the impossible-to-get-to Highway 1, and then return on the coast all the way to San Gregorio, bypassing Pescadero. This worked out quite nicely, since there’s a good place to eat right where you hit Highway 1 (as seen here). It’s called the Gazos Creek Grill, and it may become our new stop on trips to Santa Cruz. Much faster service than the over-crowded Whaler Cafe in Davenport.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse, a place many of us visited on a school field trip... if you're old enough to have been in school when they still had field trips.

Then it was a fast run north on Highway 1 to San Gregorio. Yes, fast, heading north. This was an unusual day with reversed wind direction, for which I was quite thankful. Yes, that means I did have a strong headwind at times on Cloverdale Road, but much better there, with its twists & small hills, than on the coast, where you can see the road stretch out in front of you for miles, and a headwind feels like something meant to punish you forever. I was in San Gregorio and heading up 84 in no time, and made it back a fair amount earlier than I expected.

Overall stats, from my house, came to 76 miles, 5900ft of climbing, and 17mph average riding speed. There’s a story to the average speed. I hadn’t paid attention to it most of the ride, finally checking it at the bottom of 84 as I approached Woodside. 16.9 miles per hour. Panic quickly set in; I’d much rather it had said 16.7 than 16.9, because there would be no possible way of bumping 16.7 up to 17 by the time I got home. But 16.9? Ouch. I just might be able to pull it off. So, instead of taking it easy the final few miles to home, I was pushing the pedals as hard as I could, trying to keep my current speed as much above 17 mph as possible, knowing that I was going to be going a fair amount slower than that on my way over Jefferson. Somehow, I did it. I managed to bump it up to 17mph, almost making up for the missed opportunities on Old LaHonda and Haskins Grade. Redemption is where you find it.

If you do this ride starting from Woodside, it’s going to be about 67 miles and 5500ft of climbing. Food & water will be available at LaHonda, Pescadero, Gazos Creek, San Gregorio and again at LaHonda. There’s also food & water at Sky Londa, but that’s only 10 mostly-downhill miles from the finish in Woodside. This ranks as a challenging ride, not something to attempt as your first 100k! –Mike–

First look at the new look in Redwood City store, and the end of rain!

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I should be more careful so as not to jinx things, but it appears that the end of our long string of rainy days may finally be at hand! There’s still a threat of a bit of rain later on today (Sunday) but after that, nothing in the long-range forecast but sun and, if you can believe it, 76 degrees by next Thursday!

A customer looking at a Trek Madone 6.7 in front of our new Project One & Fit center

We began to see larger numbers of customers coming into the store today, a trend that’s likely going to be increasing at a fast pace with improving weather. And, we unveiled our new Project One & Fit Center! Boy, that sounds impressive doesn’t it? It’s just a corner of our Redwood City store, but it does put our fantastic bikes in a better light, and watching the floor today it was obvious that customers coming in were really taking notice of bikes that had previously just kinda been there.

We’ve got a lot more to do; lighting, more displays, and figure out what to do with our floor (the carpet is showing its 13 years of use). We’re also working on procedures to put into place that should help streamline the bike-buying process, making it less-confusing and being more helpful figuring out what to get with a new bike. No rocket science there; some of our staff looked over a lot of bike sales in the computer and came up with a list of what people typically get with a bike. What a concept!

Do not fear the yellow blob. Embrace it!

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By sheer will I am going to make it stop raining. Last night, I told myself this is it. This morning’s ride was going to be the last rainfall on one of my ride days until early November. That big yellow blob, supposedly representing high winds & heavy rain in the forecast? Bring it on. One last time. After the ride, I told myself, my rain bike goes back downstairs, into the garage, where it will sit, lonely, for the next six months.

Well, that was the plan, and yes, I did ride this morning, but in the absence of photographic proof (cameras don’t do well in the rain) and nobody else showing up, how can you really be sure that I didn’t decide to stay home? I actually thought that one through ahead of time, and turns out, there’s an app for that! LocUpdater works on iPhones running IOS4 (the latest version of its operating system) and can be set to send emails to addresses of your choosing, at either 5, 15, 30 or 60 minute intervals. Here’s the string of emails from this-morning’s ride (emails at 8:35 & 8:50 are missing; those two were up on Skyline and possibly not in range of a cell tower at the time the message tried ot transmit).

Do not fear the yellow blob. Embrace it! If you dress appropriately and have a suitable bike, rain & wind don't have to keep you off the bike! I am still trying to find adequate waterproof gloves though.

Speed 7.93 Mi/h
Altitude 839.12 ft
3/24/11 8:04 AM
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.4364,-122.292
Speed 7.90 Mi/h
Altitude 1469.29 ft
3/24/11 8:19 AM
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.427,-122.299
Speed 15.86 Mi/h
Altitude 405.53 ft
3/24/11 9:04 AM
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.4307,-122.276 
Speed 34.69 Mi/h
Altitude 569.94 ft
3/24/11 9:19 AM
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.4597,-122.263 

Looks to me like my "last ride in the rain" might have done the trick! Starting Sunday, no more rain in the forecast. You can thank me by sending a donation to my favorite charity, the Becky & Kevin College Fund... :-)

That’s my proof that I was out there. That and my lone witness, the woman we see out there jogging, as consistent about being there and schedule as we are (the woman sometimes referred to as “articulated lady” because of the interesting way her body moves, as if she’s put together with hinges).

So is my bike in the garage now? Not yet. It has to do some serious draining first. It would be interesting to weigh my bike and clothing before the ride, and after. But I feel like I did my part to stop the rain. My next ride is Sunday, then Tuesday, then Thursday. So, did it work? Check this morning’s forecast.

Of course, if the rain does stop, I’ll have to wait another year to come up with a “waterproof” glove that actually works. The Gore gloves I used this morning? Near total failure. Cuffs way too short to fit under rain jacket, so water came down into the fingers and stayed there. Thank goodness I brought along an extra pair of gloves to change into up on Skyline!

Nothing stops the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride!

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First things first. When it’s wet out, your ride your rain bike. Your rain bike has fenders. Fenders keep the water from splashing up into the face of anyone riding behind you.

This morning, it was wet. Not raining, at least not when we were riding, but very, very wet in many places. Wet enough that my rain bike was the only real option, since it’s got tires designed for traction when wet, and… fenders. Eric also showed up on a bike with fenders. I won’t name names, but we also had George, Karen, John & Kevin with us thus morning. That’s six total, only two with fenders, one of whom was Eric, the other, me. The obvious solution is to be strong enough to ride from the front, and, literally, make those behind you eat dirt. Obvious but impractical for me; George was the strongman this morning, riding strongly at the front, the rest of us streaming behind, holding onto his wheel.

Rockslide on west-side Old LaHonda this morning

There was a lot of water in the creeks, and a lot of water on the roads. That what March has been all about… water! Lots of downed trees that had been chain-sawed into pieces, and lots of small branches still on the road. But it’s one road in particular that concerns me most- west-side Old LaHonda. On Sunday’s ride, my son and I had noticed, from up on Skyline, that it looked like there had been a large rockslide might have made the road impassable, but today, there were no signs warning that might be the case, and maybe it had been cleared away by now?

The photo says otherwise! Fortunately, plenty of room to get through by bike, and it didn’t seem like it would have been too tough for someone to clear most of the rocks out of the way by hand to get a car through… but in three days, nobody had. We’ll be paying another visit Thursday morning (apparently in some of the worst weather we’ve seen in some time) and see if it’s still there.

Rain in the forecast… it’s just that, a forecast. This is California. There will be opportunities to ride!

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Day after day of seeing long-range forecasts showing rain, rain and more rain… if you enjoy riding a bike, don’t let it get you down!

  • The weather forecast is often wrong, and when it’s not wrong, it’s at least exaggerated. It hasn’t rained 10 days straight in California in ages, and when it has, it hasn’t rained every single hour on each of those days.
  • You can ride in the rain. Whether it’s a drizzle or a downpour, you can set up a bike for rain use and pretend to mind you’re not getting wet.

Today was one of those days where you wonder how many people stayed home instead of riding and missed out on at least a couple hours in the afternoon when the sun came out, the roads dried, and the clean air & lightly-traveled roads made it a joy to be out riding. But for Kevin and I, we first had to pay our dues.

We got out to a late start (yeah, pretty much the norm), around 11:45, and headed south. The original idea was to ride through the foothills to our Los Altos store, grab a quick bite to eat and then head up Redwood Gulch to Skyline, head north to Sky Londa and home. After spending a bit too much time in Los Altos we modified things a bit, heading north along Foothill and then up Moody & Page Mill to Skyline. Kevin was a bit concerned that we’d run into some real nasty stuff up top, but I just knew otherwise. How? Just my absurd certainty that foul weather wasn’t going to last forever… and it didn’t. The last three hours of the ride saw beautiful weather, fantastic views of the coast (and a mudslide you could see when you looked down on west-side Old LaHonda).

Kevin climbing Moody in bright sunshine, on a day that had been forecast for solid rain. I'd like to claim he was enjoying himself, but this was Moody Road, after all.

Would it have been nicer if it hadn’t been raining at all? And not had to stop a couple times to readjust fenders so they wouldn’t rub against tires? Sure! But how many people looked at the weather forecast and made up their minds they wouldn’t be riding today… and later looked out their windows and saw the sun shining and the roads drying off and realized they missed out?

Be prepared. Have a rain bike handy, something you don’t worry about keeping in great shape, set up with fenders and sturdier, wider tires for more traction and fewer punctures on wet roads. Skip the minimalist seat bag and go big, something with room enough for an inexpensive plastic rain jacket (they don’t stuff so well, but they do keep the rain off). Make sure you’ve got front & rear flashing lights, and, very important, wear a hat under your helmet, so when the rain gets nasty you can just tilt your head down slightly and keep most of it out of your eyes. Don’t even think about timing the ride; it’s not about speed, it’s about being on your bike, rain or shine, hot or cold, because riding a bike makes you feel complete.

Another year older/They made fun of me blowing out the candles

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First, let me get something straight here. I don’t really do birthdays. It’s just an arbitrary date on the calendar, without a whole lot of meaning. Unless, of course, it’s one of the “important” birthdays, like 18 (supposedly an adult and you get to vote), or 21 (you get to drink, which never did much for me), or 25 (you can rent a car, and insurance rates go down). To be sure, there are a few other lesser milestones, such as 35, where you’re not really sure if you’re still young but you don’t see what further passing of years is going to do as far as worldly intelligence (because you naively think you’re smart enough to take all comers), and maybe 40 which, at least back-in-the-day, was about the oldest you’d want to be when starting a family. I guess 40 is when you’d better have it together or at least have a plan; otherwise, you’re likely to simply become an older version of whatever you are now (a denial of the need to progress, but why am I saying that as if it’s a bad thing?).

Today, I became 55. Not of my own choosing, which is perhaps one of the reasons I don’t do birthdays. They just happen. I have no control over them, and that makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. At 55, I should have control over more of my life than I did earlier. Things should go more according to plan, because by now, I’ve had plenty of time to learn from past plans that went bad (ok, mistakes), and in all likelihood I’ve had more opportunities to make mistakes in the past than I will in the future (living past 110 not being terribly likely, although my grandmother, at 101, could possibly do just that).

So, when the candles were lit on the cake tonight, I first noticed that they had been strategically placed around the perimeter such that there was no possible way to get more than one of them out at a time (I should now admit that there were only a symbolic five of them). Determined that no candle would be left standing, and their demise would be graceful and not the result of a harsh and untargeted blast of air, I planned my attack. I took two deep breaths, noting how much air I could fill my lungs with, and then, methodically, blew out each candle separately, a small puff of air for each, neatly snuffing them out one at a time. My kids had never seen (or heard) anything quite like it. No mighty blast of air, just an economical whutt, whutt, whutt, whutt, whutt and the flames were extinguished. Yes, Dad found a new way to blow out candles.

Taking stock of this 55 year old body, I note that it’s worn fairly well over the years; no serious health issues, just some minor annoyances that have always been there (exercise induced asthma) and a slightly-sore left shoulder that’s probably a result of bad posture at my desk at work. I can still ride easily 100+ miles without issue, and I really can’t think of anything I could do at 20 that I can’t do now (which could be an example of either denial or the beginning of brain rot). My weight is still a bit above ideal but below where it was when I was 35, held in check by the need to keep up on the climbs with guys who have a lot more time to ride than I do and seem to get faster as they get older. I do take more notice of “old guys” in the news, in their 80s and still running companies and doing important things in the world and think, wow, that’s 25 years older than I am now, I’m not past my prime. I can still do things! That’s not what I used to think. I used to think they were just old. :-)

The only constant this morning was me

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A bit cooler this morning but looked to be a very nice morning, something to really look forward to when the forecast show 10 solid days of rain ahead. As I’ve said so many times before, any day you can see your shadow is a good day. 10 days straight of gray is not.

Eric riding over the "repaired" section of road on west Old LaHonda. We'll see how it does with 10 days of rain coming up.

Just Eric at the start, but we picked up Markus (that’s the third way I’ve spelled his name and, according to Ludo, possibly the first time I’ve spelled it correctly… maybe?) before the start of the climb, caught up to Millo at the park entrance, and Ludo caught up to us from behind shortly after that. This was a completely different group than Tuesday, with the exception of Markus’s brief visit (he heads home shortly after we hit Skyline).

37 degrees was the coolest spot, a bit warmer up on Skyline and 41 degrees on west-side Old LaHonda, making this possibly our last ride in the 30s this season (even though it’s a “cold” storm heading in, the cloud cover means it isn’t likely to drop below the mid-4os). No rabbits yet; I think they’re waiting for it to warm up a bit more (although Eric says he’s seen them around his house, up in the hills above Los Gatos).

Do I really believe we’re going to have 10 days of rain starting tomorrow? No. Experience tells me that it’s very rare that we ever go more than three days before a break in the action. Unfortunately, it’s even more rare that such a break in the rain coincides with when I can ride!