Magic Spot Flowing

Re-reading some old posts from my LiveJournal, I came across one about “cyclist’s left”, and remembered that among the things I learned in my LAB Road I class was yet another name for this type of turn (in addition to cyclist’s left and hook turn): box turn. However, the results I get on Google for “box turn” are ambiguous, with none seeming to refer to the maneuver in question, and the only “cyclist’s left” in the Google results with my meaning is my own citation, though there is an interesting Google Books result discussing bikeway hazards which uses a similar term to discuss a similar, but not identical (because it doesn’t presume the stop), maneuver.

The bikeway hazards result is gives a good illustration of why I hate bike paths and why riding on sidewalks is a bad idea. And yes, it’s by John Forester.

Speaking of which, that reminds me about something I read recently on a Portland bike blog where someone was foaming at the mouth about vehicular cycling. They raised one issue that I felt was interesting, which is that the theory behind the fact that Oregon doesn’t use the dashed stripe at intersections that CA uses is that it reduces the number of right-turn conflict points. Which is probably the only even vaguely sensible reason I’ve heard for it, though I don’t know that I buy it.

But the main thing that annoyed me was that the person was saying that you have to be “highly trained” to ride integrated with car traffic. You do need to be trained, but not “highly trained”. Ten-year-olds can do it; attentive adults can learn it in 1-2 days. Learning to drive takes longer. Anyone who can drive already knows about 75% of what they need to know to cycle. The rest of the effort is in a few cycling-specific issues and overcoming prejudices that don’t really need to ever develop (fear of traffic, inculcated by not knowing how to handle it). Saying that vehicular cycling advocates are requiring that people be “highly trained” is rhetorical trickery of the sort that attempts to conceal blatant falsehood.

I’ve complained before (though perhaps not on this blog) about the advice given to cyclists to “ride as if you’re invisible”, because it just doesn’t make any sense. If you assume no one sees you, you can’t ride with traffic at all.

Finally, a piece of cycling instructional material backs me up:

People will often tell you to “ride as if you were invisible.” That advice only makes sense where you’re actually hidden by a blind spot. To ride all the time as if you were invisible, you would have to pull off the road whenever a car approaches from behind. You would also have to stop and wait until traffic clears before crossing any intersection. Instead, ride to make sure you’re visible. Wear bright-colored clothes day and night, and use lights and reflectors at night . Ride in the correct lane postition where you can be seen. Also, test to make sure drivers have seen you. This is the safest way to ride.
–John S. Allen, Bicycling Street Smarts

Today was an interesting bike day.

In the morning, I had a bike-car contact moment when a guy stopped suddenly in front of me (someone had stopped suddenly in front of him). I had a moment to think “Huh. My brakes aren’t going to stop me in time. Whoops, I just hit him.” Fortunately it was just a firm but not fast contact of my front tire against his rear bumper, since I was only going a few inches per second. I lost my balance, but, not being clipped in at the time, was able to recover myself without actually falling over, although the bike fell almost all the way over under me. (When it has my bag on it, stopping it from falling over once it unbalances is challenging.) The only bad effect is a small bruise on my left shin from the pedal. Fortunately. It left me shaken and was a good reminder not to follow too closely and always be prepared to stop. Also, to not generally clip in in a hurry when at an intersection. (Despite the potential hazards of the clipping, I would have been more injured had I had standard pedals, because standard pedals have more sharp edges.)

The next interesting moment was when my constant paranoia at the right-turn that I had my first accident at paid off and I only had to slow a bit to make sure people were done turning before I got near. I always think my paranoia there is excessive, but occasionally it pays off. I have a general parannoia about right-hooks, and staying alert for that does seem to help generally. There were a couple of other situations on the way back where awareness kept me to the left of a person trying to turn irght.

I also had an epiphany about riding all the way to and from work. I’ve done it every so often for a while, but it’s actually taken me a pretty long time to really get the hang of the route to the point where I always have a feel for what’s coming next, how long it is, how to pace myself, how to handle the tricky spots best. It didn’t take me so long to get the hang of the route from the train station because it’s shorter and I was riding it nearly every day, so I didn’t expect it to take so long with this route. But now that I’ve got it, I feel more comfortable with the idea of doing it a lot. Today we finished our conference call at work about 15 minutes too late for me to catch the first evening local train, so I figured, you know, it’s going to take the same amount of time, why don’t I just ride. So I did, and it was pleasant, though there are always annoying bits (often other cyclists, I’m sad to say). I guess this is part of the process of becoming hardcore and just riding everywhere all the time like some of the awesome people I know. You just get used to it and do it, and not only does 10 or 20 miles not seem like a long way for a fun ride, it doesn’t even seem like a long way for an everyday ride. Also, I prefer it after rush hour is over. It makes the situation at Middlefield and San Antonio a lot less stressful.

I do really need to take care of this handlebar thing, though. I just can’t get comfortable on the Salsa handlebars even now that I’m used to them. It turns out they’re actually a bit deeper and have a greater drop than the Bontragers, even though I described the opposite case when I first looked at them. Anyone got a suggestion on finding a 60-65 mm (very short) stem with a 31.8mm clamp and a 15 degree rise? At a reasonable price, of course…

So Thursday was Bike to Work Day, for which I was determined to do something more than just biking to work. After all, every day is already bike to work day in that sense. So I decided to volunteer to help out as an Outreach Host for SVBC at an Energizer Station, to provide information and make contact with potential members, as well as to help manage the station.

My first stop was Outreach Training, where I learned what the goal of being an Outreach Host is and how to talk to people about SVBC. It was a fun night with some pizza and meeting other members of SVBC interested in volunteering.

The day of, I had to be at the Energizer Station by 7 at the latest, so I got up at 6:15, hurried through my prep, and made it to Cal Ave with five minutes to spare. The day was scheduled to be almost 100 degrees, so I brought a hat, sunscreen, sandals to change into, and plenty of water. We were between busy and inundated almost the entire time I was there, from 7 to 9:15 or so (after that we were mostly packed up). We gave away all our new VTA maps and many old ones, all our bags, all the bananas, and most of the bagels and coffeecake, along with lots of coupons, goodies, smiles, and support.

I really enjoyed the experience, even more than the Amgen Tour of California bike parking volunteering, which I didn’t count for this goal’s purpose because the Tour isn’t a bike advocacy event, it’s a competitive event. This was all about supporting utility cycling and traveling by public or self-propelled transit (walkers, skateboarders, scooters, and others are, of course, also welcome at Energizer stations). It was nice to connect with other people who have high bike-to-person ratios in their households and commute or do errands with their bike setups. My bike and pannier setup got some appreciation. I saw the full gamut from kids (in bike seats and trailers, or on their own bikes or trail-a-bikes) to roadies (there was a Webcor Alto Velo photo op at the station around 8, a good follow-on from last week’s BTWW kickoff event at Webcor).

It started to get pretty hot around 8:00, and by 9:25 when I headed out to work it was very hot. I had to stop several times on my ride to cool down and guzzle water, and I was not appreciating the conductivity of my metal water bottle. Every time I had to stop for a stoplight in the sun, my self-created breeze disappeared and I felt like I was melting. But I made it to work all right, even with a bagel stop. The bagel shop employees kindly let me bring in my bike and gave me some tape to make sure the bagel bag stayed shut and attached to my bike.

One of the most encouraging things for me is that this year I got a lot more positive response from my coworkers. Two of them already bike to work either regularly or occasionally, and did on Thursday. Another rides a lot but doesn’t normally commute that way, but decided to map it out and ride in for Bike to Work Day. Three more are considering it, and our CEO said he will ride someday when he doesn’t have meetings. I am hoping for a company BTWD later this summer, maybe when it isn’t 99 degrees outside! If we really get everyone who’s considering it we will have 8 out of the 25 people in the office riding — 30 percent. And everyone else at least appreciates the bagels. :-)

The day ended with a trip down to San Jose for the Bike Away From Work Bash at Gordon Biersch. I wanted to bike down, but work called, so I grabbed a Caltrain and enjoyed more conversation with fellow cyclists. I missed the food at the party, but got drinks and good company, and missing the food only provided an excuse to go to Ben’s later, so it wasn’t so bad. I finally got home, tired and happy, around 10:30.

I’m sure this is only the first of many SVBC volunteering events I’ll be doing, and it was a great start.

I picked up a copy of Momentum magazine (”The magazine for self-propelled people”) out of a box they brought us at Maker Faire to take to SFBC. It turns out it’s an awesome magazine, and it’s incredibly cool that the ads are all for things I might actually want, or want to know about — bikes, bike clothes, bike accessories, bike events, travel, sustainability stuff…it’s great. And the articles are even better. From kinderbakfietsen (hee!) to Mellow Johnny’s, Chicago to Toronto, Safe Routes to School to Bike to Work Day, sustainable arm-warmers to helmet-mounted cameras…this is the first magazine I’ve seen in ages that I actually want to subscribe to, and the only one I’ve ever seen where I like the ads as much as the magazine.

They’ve already introduced me to a new line of adult trikes and a great writer and tourist. It can only get better.

After I finally got my 2WG bag from the post office, I’ve been getting used to it. I didn’t want to do a review of it before I got used to it, because it takes a while to get used to a new bag and figure out where you want to keep everything and what you should take.

First of all, I want to say that Jonah, who runs 2WG, is just terrific on customer service. I have asked him so many questions and he wrote back patiently to all of them. I don’t think I could get this kind of service from any other company. The biggest problem I had was that my Blackburn EX-1 is too tall for the straps to reach the bottom of the rack so that I can properly hook the D-rings that keep the bag from jouncing around. He suggested attaching S-hooks to the bottom to increase the reach, and when I was slow on the uptake of going to purchase them (I just have not had time to go to REI yet) he sent some to me! Now that’s service. He also explained why the pockets are one-up one-sideways (you can load the sideways one while the bag is hanging) and how to best put the bag on and get it off.

The bag seems well-made to me. I have had some doubts about the zippers, I must admit, but they are trying to do something tough (go around corners) and have slowly gotten easier to work. Even when they seem to be straining they don’t break or misalign, which is a good sign. I also don’t often have to undo the corner parts.

The sizes of the main outer pockets are ample for my lunch jar and a book on one side and a laptop in a soft carry-case or my lock and shoes on the other side. (The lock will fit into the lunch jar side if I’m carrying my laptop. I have given up on mounting the lock on my bike because it comes with a weird mounting system that does not work as well as the old Kryptonite system.) I have a medium-size laptop, so it wouldn’t fit a huge MacBook, but it’s fine for most normal PC laptops. If I’m not fully loaded I can stick a box of soymilk and a few other groceries in there on the way home, even though grocery trips are not what this bag is designed for.

The smaller outer pockets (on the outside of the larger ones) hold plenty of miscellany like my cell phone, wallet, buff, MP3 player, sunglasses case, etc. I kind of wish there were organizer pockets in one of them, but that would reduce their general usefulness at the price of satisfying super-organized people like me, so I think it’s wise they didn’t do this. The top half-cylindrical pocket holds my random bike/transit stuff — multitool, tire levers, maps & schedules, ankle bands, and the like, and easily fits my keys for quick access.

There are even several little attachments for straps on the outside, handy for attaching my helmet or whatever. There’s a good tail mount for a taillight and some bright reflective tape on the back.

The big main compartment has room for lots of clothes either hanging (normal use) or folded (if you load it while it’s flat rather than vertical) or dropped in the bottom if they don’t need hanging. This is the bag’s main selling point — that you can carry your clothes without smashing them — and while I don’t take full advantage of this for work because my work is casual, it’s nice even for that and it would be so handy if I needed to look presentable one day but still needed to ride (it does happen!), or for special trips that I want to ride to but need to look presentable at. I know there are loads of people that ride in normal clothes or even suits, but I sweat easily and inevitably get grease on me, and it wears out the clothes, so I just prefer bike clothes and changing when I get there.

The bag is also great because it is not very hard to take off the bike, and once removed, it looks like a large garment bag-cum-briefcase (exactly what it is!) which looks far more professional than your average pannier. This is important for me because it has to come off on Caltrain (no room for cargo) and if I’m toting clothes to look nice in I’d prefer my bag look nice too. I wear it across my body (shoulder to over the opposite hip) using the included strap and have no trouble getting on and off Caltrain with it, even with a lot of stuff in, though it is large and heavy. It can also be carried in hand by two handles.

All in all, if you are looking for a bike bag to commute with and want to carry clothes to change into and don’t like stuffing them in a backpack, this is a great bag. However, it is built exactly for this purpose and I don’t think is the best bag for anything else. If you want a multipurpose bag, better stick to a backpack or another type of pannier.

Courtesy the brilliant minds on the SVBC listserv and especially Margaret Okuzumi, ED of the Bay Rail Alliance and a very nice and friendly person:

Caltrain Bike Tips

Caltrain will tell you the bike rules, but those of us who use it every day will tell you how to do better than the rules and be a courteous bike commuter when using the train as part of your commute.

One thing we missed: don’t obstruct pedestrians getting on or off the train. Caltrain says pedestrians have the right to board and exit first. Try not to get in the way of a pedestrian or contact one with your bike — it could end in reprimand, anger, or injury. Sometimes simultaneous bike/ped boarding and deboarding is permitted by the conductors. If the stairs are divided unevenly, it’s bikes through the wide side unless you’re experienced and have a skinny bike, but if the wide side is on the south (pedestrian) side of the car, the pedestrians get to go first.

After getting some info from the 2WG guys I decided to go with ordering that bag. I hope it’ll work well; I did see some mixed reviews on the good old Internet, mainly that it was not durable enough, especially zippers. We’ll see. I’m pretty good to my equipment. They’ll take it back after 30 days for any reason and up to a year for defects, so I figured I couldn’t lose (much).

The questions I asked were:

Is it easy and quick to get on and off the bike?
Will my lunch jar fit in (measurements given)?

The answers were yes, and yes, according to them. The attachment process is top hooks for the rack plus two bottom rings and securing straps (velcro). I was charmed to hear that apparently the guy who answered my email won a wager that a 5-year-old could do it herself after a demo. I’m smarter than a 5-year-old — I hope!

The lunch jar would fit in a shoe pocket (what I thought, but I wanted confirmation). They also suggested they could custom-make one that would fit the lunch jar on top (in the area where you can stuff a few extra things), but I don’t think it’s necessary nor is it ideal to have the jar on its side. Still, I thought it was very thoughtful of them to suggest it. I’m looking forward to trying the bag out on the rack I ordered from Nashbar (a Blackburn EX-1) and finally being a proper cargo-carrying commuter.

Today was the first ‘true’ test-ride for Meg, to work and back (19.5 mi round-trip). I’m feeling pretty comfortable about this being the bike that I ride most of the time for the next 5+ years, but I’m positive now that I need to change the handlebars and I think I may need to change the saddle as well. It’s a little rounder on top than I like. It’s funny how a tiny change in the roundness (I think it’s about a 1/4 inch lower on the sides than the saddle on Maia) can make a huge difference in comfort. Both Maia and my commute saddle are more comfortable for me than the Terry (a Butterfly CrMo). Too bad, because I know a lot of people love that saddle, but apparently I’m not as round as they are!

( I think it’s quite funny that Terry supplies a saddle but not stock pedals. There are many more types of saddles than pedals, but Terry makes saddles and not pedals…)

I did discover that I was making the handlebars’ characteristics worse because of a funny way I was tucking my fingers, so that helped, but my thumbs are still sore after today’s ride. I’ll have to find out if there are any handlebars that cross the flat top with the shallow bottom.

I also learned that I probably am going to want clipless pedals on Meg. I hate the way the toeclip pedals I got work (I already took the straps off, but I don’t like the way the clip is only on one side, scrapes the bottom if I turn without being in it, and is hard to get into) and my feet were feeling a bit sore from trying to stay firm on the pedals at the higher speeds. It’s regrettable because I was hoping to use the more visible Pedalites, but the Pedalites are very expensive (though admittedly not as much as some clipless pedals) and don’t have a clip option. Not that they should, but I think that’s what I’m going to want. On the other hand, I would like to have the option of using the bike with normal shoes for errands and such. Still humming on this one. There are one-sided clipless pedals, but that still has the one-side-only issue, but less issue of being difficult to get into (cleating in is FAR easier than toe-clipping for me).

I went to look up some better bike shoes for walking around in, but the only ones I found was someone extolling the shoes I already have. They’re OK for brief walks but they’re not like normal shoes at all.

I can’t wait until I get the rack I ordered from Nashbar and can switch to panniers. I can carry a backpack comfortably for about 5 miles and then I start wishing the weight was somewhere else! I’m looking at this fancy 2WG pannier bag, or else I would probably get the waterproof German kind at REI. Any other recommended possibilities?

This morning’s trip down Evelyn was an obstacle course for some reason. An Aramark truck, a guy backing out who couldn’t see because of the Aramark truck, a person coming out forward who was just being careless, a guy walking his bike right into the lane as I was coming (even though there is no crosswalk there and he would have been jaywalking even if there had been), a confused person stopping for no apparent reason in the bike lane, the same Aramark truck backing up, and finally, construction blocking off an entire lane. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Evelyn that bad before; it’s usually pretty peaceful minus the people who aren’t paying attention while making right turns.

The adrenaline involved in the experience reminded me of a thought I had last night about the people who shoot through every intersection with little regard for the law. Obviously some of the stuff they do is pretty stupid, but on the other hand, I’ve gotten in two bike-related accidents despite the fact that I’m usually behaving pretty ’safely’. What if those people are actually safer than I am because they don’t start from the base assumption that they can travel safely along their legal path? I’m in the habit of anticipating potential danger (which has saved me from almost certain collision at least once, probably more like three times), but I do start from this sort of belief that if I try to behave safely and anticipate issues, I should be okay. Whereas these other people tend to start from the base assumption that if they can figure out a path through somewhere that avoids all the obstacles, they should take it. Avoiding obstacles is their key goal all the time, and that’s also how you don’t get in accidents.