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Left Kendall: 4:55pm
Arrived Mosaic: 8:50pm
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moominmolly warned me that riding a tandem means communicating constantly about everything. So true! Braking! Shifting! Turning! Stopping!
In our case it was particularly about shifting, since changing gears unexpectedly is really mean to Beth's ankle. By the end of the ride I was getting a lot better at doing it smoothly, but still need practice.
And pedaling! Pedaling needs to be coordinated. The cranks on a tandem are locked in sync, so you can't coast unless your partner does too. So weird!
Notes:
• tighten shifter cables
• swap seats
• rotate stoker handlebars up a bit
• thank Molly and David profusely
On Sunday, a couple of 30-mile loops to see if we think we can make it the whole way to Ptown. Onward!
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
staying safe
May. 14th, 2010 03:37 pmIt's that time of the year again: the weather's warming up, everyone has a smile on their face and lots of people are out taking joy rides in the sun!
It can be lots of fun to go for a drive in the springtime, but it's also important to keep remember how to stay safe on the roads. After all, our public roads are not just for passenger cars. Many truck drivers share them too. While the rules of the road apply equally to the drivers of cars and trucks, it's a good idea to yield to truck drivers whenever possible. After all, most trucks are bigger, heavier and deadlier than your car.
So just remember to follow these tips to stay safe on the road:
It can be lots of fun to go for a drive in the springtime, but it's also important to keep remember how to stay safe on the roads. After all, our public roads are not just for passenger cars. Many truck drivers share them too. While the rules of the road apply equally to the drivers of cars and trucks, it's a good idea to yield to truck drivers whenever possible. After all, most trucks are bigger, heavier and deadlier than your car.
So just remember to follow these tips to stay safe on the road:
- When passing a pedestrian or a slower-moving car, blow your horn courteously or shout "on your left" out of the car window to make sure they're aware of you.
- If a semi is coming up behind you, move over to let them pass. You should pull off the road if necessary to give them a safe passing distance.
- Keep traffic flowing smoothly: if you're on a highway or high-traffic artery and are holding up the trucks behind you, be polite and take the next exit. Follow side roads to your destination.
- Don't listen to the radio or carry on a conversation with passengers while you're driving. You need your full attention on the road!
Google Biking
Mar. 10th, 2010 11:10 amGoogle Maps gets biking directions: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/biking-directions-added-to-google-maps.html
Dark green routes are dedicated bike trails and sidepaths; light green are bike lanes, and dashed green lines are "recommended" roads for biking.
I haven't explored it much yet to see what I think of the actual routes it suggests. It seems to recommend bike paths and lanes strongly over other roads, which is fine, but of course it can't really take things like road surface quality into account.
Dark green routes are dedicated bike trails and sidepaths; light green are bike lanes, and dashed green lines are "recommended" roads for biking.
I haven't explored it much yet to see what I think of the actual routes it suggests. It seems to recommend bike paths and lanes strongly over other roads, which is fine, but of course it can't really take things like road surface quality into account.
OUTRIDERS!
Feb. 26th, 2010 01:53 pm Outriders registration is open for this year! Yay! June 19!
I have done this ride twice now withinseriatim. omegabeth, who has volunteered at the rest stops for the last three years, has decided this year to ride with me. Together we are going to be "TEAM HELPFUL" and we are now soliciting volunteers to join us.
Seriously: you will probably never have a 130-mile bike ride more fun than this one: you get five rest stops with snacks and sandwiches and brownies, at the end of the ride you're in Provincetown and you get brunch the following morning before getting on the ferry back to Boston.
If we get enough people on the team, we can look into splitting a bigger fancier room at a B&B!
If we get enough people on the team, we can look into getting TEAM HELPFUL JERSEYS.
Oh this is going to rock.
I have done this ride twice now with
inseriatim. omegabeth, who has volunteered at the rest stops for the last three years, has decided this year to ride with me. Together we are going to be "TEAM HELPFUL" and we are now soliciting volunteers to join us.Seriously: you will probably never have a 130-mile bike ride more fun than this one: you get five rest stops with snacks and sandwiches and brownies, at the end of the ride you're in Provincetown and you get brunch the following morning before getting on the ferry back to Boston.
If we get enough people on the team, we can look into splitting a bigger fancier room at a B&B!
If we get enough people on the team, we can look into getting TEAM HELPFUL JERSEYS.
Oh this is going to rock.
with apologies to H.G. Wells
Nov. 25th, 2009 09:44 amWhen I see six or seven bicyclists lined up at a traffic light on a rainy 46dF morning in November, I do not fear for the human race.
Dear Tim:
Congratulations on successfully completing the League Cycling Instructor Seminar in Cambridge MA and becoming an Instructor-in-Training. I hope you are as proud of your accomplishment as the League is to have you as an LCI. Your LCI# is 2667 and your certification date is 10/18/2009.
Ironically, I never even put this on my Project Forty list, and all this time I assumed I had. Now I feel like I should go back and add it, since that was always the intent anyway.
Congratulations on successfully completing the League Cycling Instructor Seminar in Cambridge MA and becoming an Instructor-in-Training. I hope you are as proud of your accomplishment as the League is to have you as an LCI. Your LCI# is 2667 and your certification date is 10/18/2009.
Ironically, I never even put this on my Project Forty list, and all this time I assumed I had. Now I feel like I should go back and add it, since that was always the intent anyway.
LCI application submitted
Oct. 6th, 2009 02:20 amJust sent off my completed evaluation exam for the LCI seminar the weekend after next. It wasn't long -- 50 multiple choice, 25 true/false, and 10 short answer -- but cripes, some of them were hard. At least one question ("what is the most reliable guide for monitoring your level of power output when bicycling on level ground in still air?") appeared to have no prior art anywhere in our class literature -- or, as far as I can tell, on Da Intarwebz. Moreover, I am convinced that the question about how to change a flat tire has no correct answer, and was planted strictly to guarantee that no one can achieve a perfect score on this test.
Anyway. Now I have to start practicing parking-lot drills. They're also going to assign me something to present in class, in order to evaluate my teaching ability.
Public presentation. Now that's something that reaches down and invokes cold, clammy fear in my lizard brain. But hey, that's what this is all about, right? Right?
Anyway. Now I have to start practicing parking-lot drills. They're also going to assign me something to present in class, in order to evaluate my teaching ability.
Public presentation. Now that's something that reaches down and invokes cold, clammy fear in my lizard brain. But hey, that's what this is all about, right? Right?
a tragic obsession with butts
Aug. 13th, 2009 04:14 pmI was pointed this morning at an op-ed piece in the Boston Globe complaining about cyclists: "The cure for road rage? Bike laws."
It's a cranky-making piece, but it included this intriguing bit:
So, inspired by this passage, here's the letter I sent the Globe. I don't actually expect them to publish it (askeyne points out, it's really too long), so you guys get it here:
It's a cranky-making piece, but it included this intriguing bit:
A whole pack of them will stop for a second, with their bottoms facing me, and they communicate with those bottoms. Most of their messages are negative. A raised bottom means "Get off the road, you gas-guzzling pig!"
At the red light, they will all start to move through as if it’s green, and I start to follow them, not realizing the light is still red. The nearby police officer is empathetic but firm, as they ride off but I don’t. I look ahead and see their last bottom message, the raised and squeezed one that means: "See Ya, Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya!"
So, inspired by this passage, here's the letter I sent the Globe. I don't actually expect them to publish it (as
keyne points out, it's really too long), so you guys get it here:Monique Doyle Spencer's heartbreaking op-ed piece of August 13 paints a vivid picture of a motorist driven to distraction by cyclists' butts. Her entire morning commute is, to her eyes, packed from curb to curb with bicyclists' upraised and squeezed posteriors, wagging in her face, taunting her.
It is a tragic story that we cyclists have grown to know all too well. Hardly a cyclist on the road has gone a week without hearing a driver honk in appreciation of their posterior, and it is a common experience to hear a driver pull alongside and complement us on a "fat ass." Yes, we understand the fascination drivers have with our buttocks.
Ms. Doyle Spencer, however, has apparently taken this obsession to an unhealthy extreme. She describes becoming so consumed by the rear ends of the cyclists in front of her that she has nearly run red lights. Her fixation has become so acute that she seems to think our butts are actually talking to her.
I hope that Doyle Spencer is able to find help; I would not wish her fate on anyone. Ms. Doyle Spencer, please know that we Boston cyclists have you in our thoughts. And so do our butts.
Outriders 2009 postmortem thoughts
Jun. 22nd, 2009 04:19 pmNo more picture spam, I promise.
Time this year was around 11 hours 20 minutes. This is only slightly longer than my time two years ago, which surprised me for a lot of reasons. I think that if I trained reasonably well for the ride and spent less time at the rest stops / checkpoints, I could bring that time down quite a bit.
I am never, ever, ever doing this again without training. Never ever. You heard me. Never. Oh my god that was a bad idea. I'm still glad I rode, but, wow. Now I know why they tell you to do that.
By the end of the day I had sharp pains between my shoulder blades (no doubt from my hunched-over road bike posture), nasty saddle sores, and very sore Achilles tendons. Other than that, however, I didn't really have sore muscles.
The back pain has gone away; the saddle sores are probably still there. The Achilles tendons worry me. They started hurting about 30 miles into the ride and I knew I was in trouble. I tried to take it easy and stretch them whenever I could, but they are still not happy, particularly the right one. Time to ice them and stay off the bike for a few days.
Also: it's a good thing you got a new bike, but not having time to make sure the fit was good -- very unwise, my friend. (The officemate reminds me that poor pedal positioning may have contributed to the Achilles injury.)
Despite all that?
OH WOW I HAD FUN.
omegabeth has decided she's going to ride it with me next year. We are going to be "Team Helpful," and this is to put you on notice that you will be joining us.
Time this year was around 11 hours 20 minutes. This is only slightly longer than my time two years ago, which surprised me for a lot of reasons. I think that if I trained reasonably well for the ride and spent less time at the rest stops / checkpoints, I could bring that time down quite a bit.
I am never, ever, ever doing this again without training. Never ever. You heard me. Never. Oh my god that was a bad idea. I'm still glad I rode, but, wow. Now I know why they tell you to do that.
By the end of the day I had sharp pains between my shoulder blades (no doubt from my hunched-over road bike posture), nasty saddle sores, and very sore Achilles tendons. Other than that, however, I didn't really have sore muscles.
The back pain has gone away; the saddle sores are probably still there. The Achilles tendons worry me. They started hurting about 30 miles into the ride and I knew I was in trouble. I tried to take it easy and stretch them whenever I could, but they are still not happy, particularly the right one. Time to ice them and stay off the bike for a few days.
Also: it's a good thing you got a new bike, but not having time to make sure the fit was good -- very unwise, my friend. (The officemate reminds me that poor pedal positioning may have contributed to the Achilles injury.)
Despite all that?
OH WOW I HAD FUN.
omegabeth has decided she's going to ride it with me next year. We are going to be "Team Helpful," and this is to put you on notice that you will be joining us.
Due to iPhone auto-address-completion fail my last few pictures did
not go through. Here they are.
This was at the Yarmouth rest stop - about 81 miles.
