It's Almost Thanksgiving - Time for a List!

Tree photo from Wikipedia
That means it's time to put a Christmas list together so my wife and kids don't claim "you never tell me what you want." To head such lies off, I nowadays put together a Powerpoint slide show, complete with accompanying music. One year, the music was "The Green Berets," another, it was the theme to "Star Wars." It includes places they can go to get the items and what price a "good deal" might be.

I don't need lots of cycling stuff this year - but I thought I'd pass along a few items for y'all to consider, even if you wind up shopping for yourself.

First off, I think my Specialized Sonoma shoes are getting pretty shabby lately, with holes appearing in the fabric, though the tread on the bottom of the shoes is still good. Many thanks to Keri Caffrey of CommuteOrlando for the suggestion that "Pearl Izumi X-Alp Enduro, Style no. 5735,” similar to, but a little less snazzy than the women's Style 5736 might work well. Between $80 and $100. Men's size 43 should do things quite nicely.

Next, my feet get cold when I'm riding to work and it gets under about 40F. By the time it gets down to freezing, it gets really painful before I make it even 5 miles. I'm going to take the suggestion of Let's Ride a Bike and try out two pairs of socks to see if that helps, but I'm also thinking that shoe covers might be an excellent idea. Trouble is, there seem to be ones that are for aero & others for warmth. I want warmth. I'm a commuter, not a racer! These things are priced all over the map, running from under $20 up to $100. $100 seems real steep for socks you put on outside your shoes. Crimeny, even REI seems to have dozens of different types, such as shown in a screenshot at right of their website. It gets more complicated since it appears there are "road shoe" covers and "mtb shoe" covers. I think I need the latter. I'm not wanting to walk like a duck when I'm just going to work! I'm sure someone out there has a blog that wants to do a "shoe cover special post!" Ain't the Internet wonderful? Anyway, for sure, multiple pairs of real wool socks, all in the same color, would be welcome. Wool socks would also make good stocking stuffers! And speaking of wool, I expect an added report from RatTrap press on wool jerseys in time to add THOSE to my list if needed. Get cracking!

While I'm trying to stay warm, I'm hoping that our ski mittens work so I wouldn't mind title to a used pair, abandoned by our kids. Something exotic might work as well, but free sounds good. For my head, my balaclava will work, but between black pants, a black cycling jacket, and a black balaclava, I'm starting to feel a bit like "Return of the Ninja" even with lights all over the front and back of Buddy. If we can find my "Smith's Clear Ski Goggles" it would also be just ducky. My eyes water when it gets cold and I'm heading into the wind. Heck, I'd even be willing to wear the kids' Scott clear goggles. Safety glasses, as Dottie recommends, just don't work all that well in my book when it's cold and windy.

I'll probably also add the generator hub wheel for Frankenbike to the list. It's expensive enough with lights that it'll make everything else look cheap! With everything, it'd run over $300 and probably be a special order. Maybe I'll lie & say it costs even more to make the shoes look like a bargain. Shhh...

 
And, just to get some things that seem really cool but it is unclear how strong the real NEED is, those panniers that Suburban Assault pointed out (about $80, but I don't know who carries them around Tarrant County), and the Topeak tub (probably around $40 but I have no idea where to get one) that Rantwick asked about (MUCH cooler than the blue or even RED tubs), would be fun.
 
Oh yeah, a small, inexpensive camera with a good optical zoom would really kick the iPhone's butt, too! $100. They're on sale at Costco.
 
And, pretty much in the cycling category nowadays, sugar-free coffee syrup in various flavors would work really well. Finally, if they aren't just imaginary, Park Tools BBQ Tongs would finish things off perfectly! Actually, since I've started to diverge from cycling stuff, World Peace would be really nice, but I'm not sure where my family can go to pick that up...

Return of the Death Star

In the waning month of Daylight Savings Time, one of the creepy aspects of my commute was a black, Hummer H2 in the Remington Park Subdivision of Colleyville. After several weeks, seeing it most mornings, I came to think of it as an early 21st Century precursor to the Star Wars "Death Star."

You see, this vehicle was off on the dark side of Remington Parkway, silently waiting, just waiting, but with all of its running lights eerily glowing in the dark. I guess it was probably a mom waiting with her child for the school bus to show up, but it seemed vaguely sinister to me somehow. Not that it ever appeared to threaten me or any other traffic or pedestrian anywhere in the vicinity. It just seemed BAD. Like as in "the dark side."

Surprisingly, when Standard Time arrived, I no longer saw the Hummer parked in its appointed spot. Instead, on a few mornings, I'd see (I'm happy to report) a Jaguar XKR, or, more often, nothing at all. I figured the Hummer/Death Star decided to patrol some other galaxy, or at least another neighborhood. Until this morning, that is. Perhaps the Death Star needed a bit more shortening of the days before it felt it safe to reappear.

This morning, it was there once again, in the dark, complete with its glowing running lights. Seeing it, I resolved to capture it in a photo and so I stopped to pull out my iPhone camera. The intelligence associated with it was apparently disturbed by my stopping, or perhaps was just concerned I felt endangered, because its lights suddenly all winked out. With no flash, the opportunity for a picture was gone and so you see, instead, my impression of what I saw.

One might wonder why it's necessary to drive a child to a bus pickup point, within a subdivision, on a nice, albeit slightly crisp, morning, but maybe there's a good reason. Maybe it's just someone that's gotten a little too used to driving everywhere due to an infrastructure that has neglected the simple pleasures of walking around the neighborhood - and this is very common in subdivisions around here. Myself, walking about in the morning is enjoyable (unless I have a flat tire on my bike). Where people walk, they enjoy things a bit more. Just my personal take. Submitted for y'all's consideration...

Fenders Need Work

Besides the rack and bag, posted here, which unquestionably have utility for commuting, I got a little overenthusiastic and bought some fenders for Buddy. Keep in mind that it doesn't really rain all that much around North Texas to start with and I typically pick rain days to bring in clean laundry and take home the used equivalent.

Having (I hoped), at least a lick of common sense, I elected to pick fenders which would go on and off easily. After reading a bunch of reviews, I picked the "Planet Bike Speedez" fenders, which come in a black color that complement Buddy's red, white, and black color scheme quite well. These fenders had some really GREAT reviews, which gave me hope.

You can see them installed in the photo in the previous post, here. Except for the "Planet Bike Ad" on the mud flap, they look very nice indeed. Even the logo isn't anything a "Sharpie" can't fix. But they're not really set up to mount for anybody not willing to tweak things a LOT. In the photo, they were not really ready for prime time, as will be seen.

Except that fenders aren't made in England any more, some things haven't changed. Putting fenders on a bike is a fiddly task, and it gets even harder if you want the fenders to go on quick and easy for those occasional wet road situations, keeping them in the closet the rest of the time.

FIRST PROBLEM

Problem #1 was mounting the REAR fender. Planet Bike didn't account for the  Specialized Tricross marketing team that elected to put a dopey "Zertz" insert exactly where you might want to mount fenders. It gave me two choices. I first tried mounting them at the "Choice #1" location, which, when adjusted as much as possible, rammed the rear fender into the V Brake, making it pretty useless. Then, I tried mounting them at the "Choice #2" location which left the fender rubbing on the rear tire. Mounting the included clip fixed this problem, albeit at the cost of a tacky zip tie (actually, I needed to use TWO zip ties and probably ought to have used THREE). What the heck are zip ties doing in a fender designed for "rapid on/off" operation anyway? I might have better off just to do the traditional "bolt it on" fender installation, except Buddy has no "caliper brake bridge" that such fenders traditionally use. It's got a V brake, with an added fitting I could use for a cantilever brake. No caliper brake drilling.

SECOND PROBLEM
Problem #2 (I only had two problems) was to mount the FRONT fender. While this one went on fairly cleanly, there was nothing included in the mounting kit to attach it to the "brake bridge" (it's really more of a "front rack bridge") except one attractive looking black bolt that wasn't long enough to pass through the hole. I'm not sure exactly WHAT the bolt would have attached TO in any event since Planet Bike didn't include anything other than four holes in the fender. Even this wouldn't have been too bad had not the fender rattled like a machine gun. I could have fixed this with yet another zip tie or two, but at this point, I said to myself, "no mas zip ties!" I'm really NOT a fan of needing a whole bag full of zip ties to attach fenders I want to be able to attach and detach at a moment's notice. Rubber and bungees are OK. They're reusable, even if they might rot if too much UV gets to them.

I've got a bit of work to do. Tonight, the fenders came back off. There's a bit of supplemental purchasing at Lowe's or Home Depot to get things right that the marketing geniuses and what pass for engineers at Planet Bike didn't think out. When these fenders go ON the bike for real, I'll get them on in under a minute. They don't do that as received from the Planet Bike people. NOT EVEN CLOSE. NOT EVEN IN TEN TIMES THE TIME.

In their defense, at least Planet Bike TRIES to make fenders. They just don't do it real well, though their instructions do give you a choice of English or French. You can't really say that about most of the other major bike equipment suppliers. And PB, albeit not very good,  DOES have more promise than what Bluemels  and the other classic suppliers have become nowadays. Hammered aluminum or wood may LOOK nice, but Buddy is a WORKING bike. This is the 21st Century, people. We shouldn't HAVE to either run without fenders or leave them on forever any more! To twist Marx around, "Bike Riders of the World Arise, You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Fenders!"

Regardless of the design, these fenders WILL work on Buddy and I'll do a follow-up post showing how at that time...

Buddy Goes All Soft on Me

Buddy sports a new bag and fenders
Reflector will be replaced with an amber SAE unit
once I can get to an RV store to buy one.

This coming week, the temperatures are forecast to be a LOT lower in North Texas than they were the first two weeks of November. We're talking down into the upper 30's which is a good 20 degrees colder than anything previously seen this fall. Maybe it'll snow for Thanksgiving?

I've been considering carefully the problem of getting to work comfortably when the ride home might be 40 degrees higher than the ride in to work. Last winter, with a shorter commute, it was still pretty unpleasant when it got down near freezing - and that reduced ride frequency. I still prefer to travel light, because the ride both ways isn't short, and lugging around extra stuff is not something to be done without due consideration, but long pants, cycling jacket, and other items needed in the morning get me overheated on the way home.

Anyway, after nearly a year of resistance, I've determined to get a rack and bag for Buddy for the upcoming cold months. In a fit of spending overenthusiasm, I also got a set of fenders, but more on those later. Let's stick to essentials for the time being.

For the rack and bag, I considered a lot of options, but selected a Topeak rack and bag. While I don't leave Buddy unattended, I really like the notion that the bag can be slid on and off, "clicking" into place. The "mini" panniers, stowed away in the photos, give the bag added utility without an undue weight penalty. The rack and bag went on with no problems. I painted the bracket stays black to match the rack instead of leaving them silver. I don't know why Topeak didn't do this themselves - it gives the installation a much more finished look.

I think I've still got a bit of work to do in order to get the lighting setup right. The light mounted on the rack stay is a bit unstable due to a little too much rubber in the mount, the reflector is borrowed from my wife's bike and I plan to replace it with an amber SAE reflector which is FAR superior to a CPSC reflector (they don't sell SAE reflectors at bike shops - you have to go to an auto or RV parts place). I am also not happy with how the oval light droops when clipped to the back of the bag.

Buddy's bag snapped into place. I'm not sure about these fenders, though!

Propaganda - or Not?

This morning, I happened across an article entitled "How to Conquer Bikephobia" in the Toronto Star. Occasionally, puff pieces such as this have little nuggets. This one had the following, hidden amongst the usual stuff:

"We Canadians, however, aren't doing so well at a 30 per cent bike share for women, and maybe a 2 per cent commute share for bikes. (The trend is similar in the U.S and Australia.) In Toronto, just 1.7 per cent of the population rode to work in 2006 – just 35 per cent of them female. But we're not the worst city, laughs Pucher. "In Dallas, Texas, 95 per cent of bicyclists are men. Which is disgusting!" (emphasis added by yours truly)

Where do numbers such as this come from? 95%? Maybe so, and I can't say I've been counting, but 1/3 of the regular bike commuters in my building (there are three of us so I'm pretty sure this is accurate data) are women - which is greater than the overall fraction of female workers in the building. Maybe Dallas really IS a lot different than Tarrant County, but apart from the temptation to engage in a little Dallas-bashing, I can't believe that things are all that much different than Tarrant County.

I did a little more checking, and this claims it came from Scientific American, though I could find no mention of it there. It also cites "Bike Pittsburgh" as a source, here. It doesn't really seem to have very high fidelity data, though it does claim that St Louis has a 1.4% bike share amongst men but a zero share amongst women. Tulsa, on the other hand, achieved parity with 0.4% share amongst both sexes. Amazing!

I don't know, this one sort of seemed a little too far beyond the pale to ignore, even if it WAS a Canadian paper. Does Pucher just make these things up out of thin air or maybe they just twisted something completely around and have no editors awake at the paper?

Almost Hit by a Car

My wife told me a couple of nights ago that she almost hit an older gentleman (nobody we know) on a bicycle. She was on Glade, shown here. I don’t like Glade since they “fixed” it. But none of the fixing made a difference in this case. You see, the gentleman was riding on the sidewalk toward the intersection. He was going too fast to stop or turn and so he flew out into the street in front of my wife. Fortunately, she was able to avoid running him over. My youngest daughter was in the car and I haven’t taught her how to pass people that just fly out into the middle of the traffic lane out of nowhere. I’m not sure I know how to pull off that maneuver myself if I’m in the Land Rover. Heck, I’m not sure I’d be able to avoid the guy if I were riding Buddy. He’s sure a lot bigger target than the squirrel.

If you ride on sidewalks, PLEASE be extra cautious when approaching intersections or driveways Sidewalks are (don’t tell anyone I said this) perfectly safe for someone to ride a bike on AS LONG AS the rider is following pedestrian rules and going pedestrian speeds. If you KNOW someone who rides on sidewalks, find a way to diplomatically let them know of the dangers they face. There’s a reason they don’t call them “siderides.”

Would I be required to discontinue this blog if a close relative hit someone on a bike? I hope not, and I hope I don't find out.

Continental Tires Are Better Than I Thought

Continental GP 4 Season Tires at 2300 miles

In my post, here, back in September, about nothing being idiot proof, I noted that I got over 2300 miles before I got my first flat with the 28c Continental Grand Prix 4 Season tires I run on my commute bike. Well, this morning, I had two more flats. The first was waiting for me when I went to get the bike – it’d had full pressure at 10PM last night. I changed the tube and replaced the spare. Mentally, I noted that the tube damage looked similar to the September flat. Hmm. About 15 miles into the commute, the tire suddenly went flat as I was headed north on Katy Road on the Keller/Fort Worth border. It was about three doors north of the tank, shown here. I was really glad I’d replaced the spare!

Sure enough, when I got the tire off, I found tube damage identical to the first two flats. All three were caused by failure of the rim strip at one of the spoke holes (these rims have recessed spoke nipples, being semi-aero). Before installing the spare tube, I took a “no glue patch” and stuck it over the rim strip failure location. These rim strips are the type intended for use with a tubeless tire conversion, not the Velox I normally use.

So, dear readers, my previous report was in error. The tires were blameless at 2300 miles and they remain blameless at 3400 miles. With last weekend’s cyclocross, I took the opportunity to rotate the tires so that wear between the fronts and rears remains equal. At 2300 miles, I estimated the tires would last for 4k-5k miles. Now, I think they’ll last for at least 5k miles. 3400 miles with no tire-related flats seems like a pretty good start to me.

Continental tire (same tire as photo at top) at 3400 miles

Who are these tires for?
Clearly, I’m a fan of these tires, but they’re not for everyone. If you’re a road racer, their 28c profile won’t appeal to you. Their puncture resistance is also more than what you’ll need. On the other hand, if you’re going to go riding through heavy duty debris and glass, the Continentals won’t hold up as well as Armadillo All Condition. They also don't come in sizes wider than the 28c that I run - Dutch bikes need not apply. However, if you want a tire for a fast, long distance commute, and you ride where debris and potholes are a moderate hazard, these tires will get you there, they feel solid and roll nice, and they’re surprisingly light for a puncture resistant tire (lighter, for example, than ChipSeal's Armadillo Elites). Even in the wet, they feel steady.Yeah, I'll probably buy another set when these ones wear out next Spring.

PS:
This morning illustrated why having part of the commute in daylight is REALLY nice. First, I wasn’t changing things in the dark, which I would have been doing had this occurred in October. Second, a Good Samaritan living in the next door house made a special trip outside to inquire as to whether I needed help and he even offered to provide a pump. I didn’t need the help, but it was sure nice to hear the offer all the same. I think help offers would be less forthcoming in predawn darkness. Instead, the owner would see some scofflaw out in the dark, acting suspiciously.

And yes, the patch on the rim seems to have done the trick!

Veterans

Photo from Wikipedia - Remembrance Day Poppies

Go here for their story.

Cycling really IS fun and safe. This is true even though there seem to be a high fraction of people on bikes doing really DUMB stuff. However, like soldiers, life is much safer for some than for others. In each case, it’s disproportionally the veterans that survive.

In the mini series, “Band of Brothers,” I recall one episode in which replacements come to the unit. None of the veterans really wanted to know anything about the replacements. They knew the replacements would mostly be the ones hit when the battle resumed and they didn’t want to get wrapped up with someone that’d be dead in a day or two.
In a milder form, the same trend may be seen in motor traffic. It forms the basis for the notion of “graduated driver licensing” that has been implemented in many states, and is part of the reason teen drivers pay higher insurance rates. They don’t have the experience to be veterans. The same thing may be seen in motorcycle accident rates – most often it’s new riders that get killed.

Cycling is the same. Forester, in Effective Cycling, points out that accident rates drop dramatically with successful cycling experience. He claims, and I think he understates things, that a cyclist’s chances of having an incident in a given year are about the same regardless of how far he/she rides. It’s clear cycling veterans know something useful.

This effect, while it ought to be perfectly obvious, plays a role in many ways. For example, accident rates in the Netherlands are lower than the US, but it is it because of their facilities and large numbers of cyclists, or is it really because people cycle there enough that they simply get better at it? Nobody really knows. All I will claim is that an increase in novice cyclists will result in an increase in cyclist deaths, regardless of what facilities may or may not exist at any given moment. It’s mostly the “replacements” that get killed. Those that survive either give up or get better.

There are two main things that’ll help, with a less important third factor that figures strongly in news articles. Training, experience, and equipment. The first two are far and away the most important. The second reinforces the first. The third seems most popular, particularly in the press.

Training comes in two forms, formal cycling education; often difficult to obtain in the United States, and a recognition by the cyclist that he/she can purposely consider and practice situations that may be encountered in the real world. A good start is a post-ride recap, to consider what might have been done better and what might have turned into a dangerous situation. All cyclists do this after a close call. Do it WITHOUT the close call and you’ll be better for it. Another good start is to get a solid book on traffic riding. Effective Cycling comes to mind. Our military trains almost ALL the time.

Experience is also something that can be actively cultivated. In my case, for example, I find that I lack experience in riding amongst large cycling groups. I got downright nervous seeing all the crashes at the HH100. This raises my risk in those circumstances compared to a more experienced rider. That awareness alone reduces the risk somewhat, and adding training/experience will reduce it further. I also lack experience in weekday downtown cycling because I have little cause to be downtown on weekdays. Should that change, I’ll have to work on that. In the meantime, I simulate that experience when opportunity presents. Our military works very hard to communicate the results of experience to all who might benefit from it. They revise the training to better reflect the experience.

Equipment can also help, but it has been demonstrated many times that the superior pilot in the inferior plane wins almost every time. So it is with cycling. Equipment is, at most, a tie breaker. Going back to the analogy, the superior pilot would be foolish to rely on that superiority and eschew safety equipment such as a parachute, but equipment is no substitute for training or experience. As has been noted elsewhere, equipment is a hardware solution to what is, at its heart, a software problem.

This Veteran’s Day, we’d do well to remember that training and experience are most of what make the US military what it is. The same two elements can help us become OLD and wily cyclists.

Seen on Katy Road, on Veteran's Day 2009.

It's amazing some of the things you notice on a bike!

I'd make way for this guy any day...

Shooting Stars, Squirrels and Secret Parking Lots

I was short of inspiration about what to write today when I left for work this morning. It was dark as I rolled out, but unlike the last remnants of Daylight Savings Time, the darkness would soon lift. I was treated to an unusually large and beautiful shooting star off to the west. I wouldn't have noticed had I been driving to work. Sweet. I wish I could catch stuff like that with the camera. The rest of the ride in was fairly uneventful. I did notice that the young buffalo in the pasture next to Cabela's have started to acquire horns. They're also very interested if you happen to blow kisses at them as you ride by. I'll have to do a spring/fall comparison before long. For those with excessively curious minds, I have no idea how to tell a young boy buffalo from a young girl buffalo from the Service Road and I'm not about to climb over the fence into the pasture for closer investigation.

On the way, home, I decided to further investigate the possibility that I may have inadvertently added another parking lot to my route. You might ask how Steve could be riding through a parking lot, less than a block from the Keller Police Department, without realizing it? Day after day? Follow along and you'll see this isn't your everyday parking lot. You see, it's a SECRET parking lot. The photo below shows a street, Phillips Drive, that camouflages the entrance to this parking lot.

Next, you'll notice that there's another intersection. THIS marks the Eastern end of Phillips Drive, and hides the entrance to the parking lot. You'll note the driver looks a little confused. He's wondering what that thing is off to his left rear that looks like just another street. Probably it doesn't show up on his onboard GPS unit. "Don't worry sir, you needn't trouble yourself about that pavement."

The THIRD picture gives the game away. Look carefully at those red stripes on either side of the apparent street. Those are the sure North Texas giveaway to a parking lot. Parking lots are just chock full of red stripes around here. And, sure enough, if you proceed through the parking lot to Pate Orr, there may be a stop sign at the parking lot exit, but there is no street sign. It's a secret parking lot.

As proof, Yahoo maps show no road where those red stripes are, and where I ride every day. Crimeny, some of those parking lots are really sneaky!

In my own defense, it took me a few months for it to hit me that I was riding through a Middle School parking lot, blissfully unaware that I was courting the disapproval of Rantwick's mom. I also cite as evidence for the defense, the Google map version of the same location, shown below. "Officer, Google said it was a road and Google MUST be right!" Google was what I used to pick this route. Perhaps Google was fooled by the secret parking lot - or maybe it's just that there are no secrets TO Google.

And what about squirrels? Well, on the last leg home, as it was getting dark again, a squirrel shot across Glade Road, about two feet in front of my front wheel. It could have been messy. I hope the little guy made it home. I know he put a little unexpected spice into the last part of what was otherwise an uneventful, if educational, trip home. I think I'd rather be chased by a dog...

Cyclocross Observations

Tires - If you use your commuter bike for cyclocross, you might wind up changing a lot of tires if you only have one set of wheels. Friday night, I took off my commuter tires and put on knobbies. I also took off all the other various commuting items. It didn’t take long. On Sunday night, it seemed to take a LOT longer to change back. With four local races, that would be 16 tire changes. I don’t NEED that much practice changing tires. Racing might be fun, but changing tires gets old.

x

Run Over - Unlike commuting, getting run down from behind in a cyclocross race is something that occurs fairly often. When you hear “on your left,” you better not swerve, drift, skid, or bounce left. Go OVER that root! Much more than in traffic, the ability to throw a head check without swerving is an important skill, because sometimes an “on your left” will be followed by one rider passing. Sometimes it’ll be followed by three passing. I didn’t get run down, but I saw a number of overtaking collisions. Wearing a helmet would be smart even if it weren’t required.

Sore Muscles - How exactly do you get sore after 45 minutes of riding around in the grass and mud, when a much longer commute has no equivalent effect? This one is a mystery to me. I figured that riding around in a park would use pretty much the same muscles as riding the same bike on the road. If you haven’t cyclocrossed before, pick the shortest race they’ll let you enter.

Water Bottle – While a bottle carrier/bottle may interfere with your ability to cleanly toss the bike onto your shoulder, a small sport bottle in a rear jersey pocket wouldn’t be a bad idea. I’m not sure it makes sense to bring along anything more than this. You get a flat tire or a mechanical failure, the race is probably over.

False Fable - The fable of the tortoise and the hare does not apply to cyclocross. This is a race where the hares rule. Slow and steady types are called “lappers.”

Belgian Invasion - Where do all those Ridley frames come from? It seemed like half the frames in the race were made by Ridley. There were a few of just about everything, but Ridleys seemed as common as Huffys at a WalMart. Ironically, according to the Ridley website, there are NO authorized Ridley dealers at all in Texas!

Cleanup - It’s no harder to clean up nasty, sticky mud than regular commute grit. Hose it down with a low pressure garden hose; a washcloth and a wheel brush on the tires will get most of the junk off. Do that BEFORE you take your post-race shower. After the shower, use Simple Green and a cloth to remove residual grime.

It’s a Small World, After All – Entirely by coincidence, I ran across an engineer who was also entering cyclocross for the very first time. We took Lamaze class together 20+ years ago in California. Time has been kind to him & his wife.