Local Observations

Ace Shortly Before the Lawnmowers Come Out

I’ve been back down in the DFW Metroplex for a bit and I’ll have some observations from there pretty soon. However, things being freshly back in Ocean Shores, Washington, some OTHER things stand out. First off, the daily “putting out of the lawn mowers” at the local Ace Hardware. Second, I noticed that not ONLY does the local McDonalds have a real, proper bike rack that even PM Summer would approve of, but they also have a SKATEBOARD rack. I’m not sure what design standards should be for skateboard racks, but people actually use the one at McDonalds. Nearby, they have a sign saying “No Skateboarding.” That, IMO, is a big step up from the Colleyville equivalent that simply says “No Skateboards.” FWIW, I'm not sure WHAT the rings on the skateboard rack are supposed to do other than maybe they provide some sort of locking advantage. I'm not up to speed on proper skateboard locking technique.

Ace as the First Lawnmowers are Brought Out for the Day's Consideration

Skateboard Parking Rack at the Ocean Shores McDonalds

To wrap things up, I thought I’d add a shot of the most direct route from our house to the community club. This “street” is known as “Draconis.” AKA pole line road. Quite bikeable with Frankenbike, though Kermit seems to feel a need to speak out along the way.

Draconis Road - Bike/Ped Shortest Route to the OS Community Club

Resolution Forgotten

Lately, I've taken up swimming again; a habit that had fallen into disuse when I was commuting to Alliance Airport. I just didn't feel like going to the gym after spending three hours in the saddle. When I hurt my shoulder, it took a while for unrestricted operation and swimming seemed like a good rehabilitation for the shoulder. What's more, swimming is an excellent complementary exercise for a bike commuter since it builds upper body strength. What's still more, According to my own analysis, I need to start going to the gym a couple of times a week, though just going there accomplishes most of the calorie burning needed.

Anyway, yesterday, I blithely rode to the gym to go swimming, having forgotten what day it was. Well, the first clue was the full parking lot (none of these new resolvers rode their bikes to the gym, however). The second clue was there were a lot of people swimming, so I forgot about swimming and took the opportunity for a nice, warm sauna.

We need some bad weather to get all these New Year's Resolutions forgotten a bit quicker. Either that or I'll have to hold off on the swimming for a few more weeks.

On the good news front, all the bikes are back to being fully operational, I managed to get our Internet fixed (no thanks to ATT) and I'll have the New Year to experiment with various bag and shower strategies.

And, out of curiosity, just HOW DID the Huskies beat those children of the corn?

Older Photo of Frankenbike at the Gym, on a North Texas Snowy Day.
Yesterday Looked About the same Except I was Parked about Three Feet to the Left.

Short Bike Commutes Can Be Costly

Andy Cline, at Carbon Trace, has a short bike commute. He knew where he was going to be working for many years to come and picked a house nearby. I confess that, despite a slight bittersweet taste when ending a memorable commute, I was quite pleased to trade my 20 mile v2 commute for my 7 mile v3 commute. However, I have discovered that there really IS no such thing as a free lunch and that a shorter commute does carry some cost. You might wonder, HOW is anyone worse off in any respect whatsoever by suddenly living closer to work without even having to have moved? Andy Cline might wonder, “Have I missed something?” Well, yes.

I have now made my new v3 commute long enough to project my weekly commute mileage. Conveniently, I also tracked my weekly mileage on both the v1 and v2 commutes. I find it interesting to note that the results do NOT show I double my bike mileage if I double my commute length, but the bike mileage does increase. In the case of a bike, decreased bike commute mileage means decreased calorie burn. Decreased calorie burn means either one must cut down food consumption or make special trips to go work out to maintain equilibrium. Acch. Diet and exercise!

That is bad enough, but it transpires that I can be more specific than that. Since I’ve kept commute logs, I can quantify things and determine precisely the penalty I shall have to pay for my new, short and easy commute.



Published Calorie Expenditure Chart

 To start off, if you look at the published table, riding a bike will cost somewhere between 40 and 50 calories a mile for the vast majority of us. While wind resistance plays a role, going slower doesn’t help much with basic rolling along, and few of us are going to be riding to work at an average speed over 20mph. For purposes of the analysis, energy expenditure on a bike commute is about 45 calories per mile and I use that for the calculations below.

The NEXT table shows how my own, historical daily average mileage related to different commutes. Remember in this table that daily average mileage uses seven days per week while the commute takes place in five (if you work seven days a week, we need to talk). In addition, you don’t commute when sick, on holidays, or vacation. Finally, remember that working at a more remote location means there will be more days in which driving is needed, simply to make it to appointments or other things where the bike simply isn’t fast enough to make it between two distant points in the needed time. The really short commute assumes that I’d be able to ride even a bit more frequently than my new, 7 mile commute. Even if you work at home, there will occasionally be appointments and such that simply mandate a motor vehicle, whether it is an owned car, a taxi, or a rented car.

Bike Commute Cost Comparisons

The table sorts things into increasingly long commutes. As you can see, based on historical numbers, commutes start to require significant payments as they get shorter, and the penalties in weight gain for not making those payments get more severe as well. Of course, there are many ways to vary the payments; for example, I personally could avoid the 17 pound gain by omitting 2 cheese sticks per day. Looking at the table, I thank my lucky stars that I work in an engineering job rather than the barista or Walmart greeter jobs that might fall within the theoretical “very short” commute. I’d be stuck going to the gym twice a day every day or undergoing serious food deprivation. How DO those motorists (and Andy) stay slim and trim? Perhaps they dollarize their time savings and spend it on bariatric surgery and Jenny Craig…

The Cost of a Short Commute - Extra Workouts, Dietary Rationing, or Weight Gain!

Kermie's Morning Out

I've NEVER Seen More Than Two Bikes at this Rack Until Today!

This week, it seems like everything has been busier than normal. School's starting up next week. School parking lots have been filled up and some of the roads along my commute route where NOBODY ever parks have been lined with parked cars. This morning, as is often our custom, Kermit, Frankenbike and I went on a little trip to the gym and we were shocked to see the designated bike parking filled up. If THIS continues, they'd actually have to trim back the hedge behind the bike rack.

Fortunately, the combination of my mini U lock and cable gives me wonderful flexibility in locking up Frankenbike, and I used the secondary securement point on the other side of the front entrance to the gym.

Note That the Mini U Lock Can Also be Used to Secure Things When it Acts as a Giant Padlock for the Cable

Afterwards, we were relived to see that, while things were busy at the coffee shop, bike parking was readily available, as always. This avoided getting Kermit grumpy. NOBODY loves a grumpy Kermie!

Kermit When Grumpy!

Coming home, in the never-ending search for smooth pavement, we made a few detours around the road reconstruction that seems ubiquitous this month, stopping only for a shot of the latest part of my commute route to be torn up, below. All in all, just a nice, pleasant, relaxing morning out for Kermie.

Now That They're Done Tearing Up McDonwell School Road, They're Messing With Cheek Sparger Road.
Definitely Not Real Bike OR Cyclist Friendly at the Moment!

Kermie's Taking it All in Stride; Enjoying the Morning Sun Before it Gets Hot

Bike Mode Share at the Gym

Spinning With a Famous Bike Coach in Dallas

I’m mystified. At almost any gym in Tarrant County, you will see a room full of stationary bicycles, with people taking spin classes. At the same time, you will see a completely empty bike rack outside the gym entry door. Is it just me, or does anybody else think this is a peculiar combination? Personally, I find driving specially to the gym to be a time waster, because transit time is lost workout time, unless you walk, run, or bike to the gym.

As an example, it takes me ten minutes to drive to the gym near my house. It takes me fifteen minutes to bike there if I’m working at it. For the round trip, I get thirty minutes of exercise and it only takes me thirty minutes. Looked at another way, if I were planning to do a half hour workout, it would take me thirty minutes (plus shower time) to ride, but it would take me fifty minutes (plus shower time) to accomplish if I drove. On the other hand, I’d probably spend less time in the sauna and drinking post-workout coffee if I drove, so maybe the bike really ISN’T quicker.

REMEMBER, HOW YOU GET TO THE GYM IS PART OF YOUR TOTAL WORKOUT TIME and it can improve your overall results. Don't waste that trip!

Kermit and Frankenbike All Alone During a Spinning Class

Consequences

Over the last year, I've messed up and, as a result have acquired some extra poundage. It supports my theory that cycling is worthless as a means of avoiding obesity. It CAN, however, be a valuable aid in dealing with the consequences. For the moment, it means that when I ride to the gym on Saturday mornings, I have to actually do a light workout in addition to a leisurely visit to the dry sauna. It also means that I'll snag some extra cash by winning our "lose weight" challenge at work.

Anyway, I decided this morning's ride would be eventful, so I actually brought a camera along, ready to validate my "snapping shots while traveling" technique that I previously reported. Why should I be the only uncoordinated, non-multi-tasking cycling blogger in the world? The first photo, above, shows that it would be a different morning indeed. It would soon be filled with "ninja salmon sidewalk riding" and constant honking. My loyal reader may want to avert eyes now so as to not have the image of my godlike superior riding technique forever shattered. Real people, however, may read on with no warranty implied or offered.

Seeing the construction truck coming down the road and more stuff behind it, I decided to abandon the "assertive riding approach" and become a "ninja (no lights) salmon (riding against traffic) sidewalk rider," leading to the little boy dream construction shot below. Actually, at 10AM, I think the lack of lighting is probably not going to offend even my most militant reader, and it seemed churlish to actually ride on the road here. Mostly I walked, riding only for about 20 feet so I could say I was a salmon sidewalk rider and be telling the truth.

It is true what they tell you about sidewalk riding being dangerous. Had that equipment been parked a little closer to the curb, you can see that my helmet could have been needed as it swung around in the picture below.

Don't ya just LOVE yellow construction equipment in action? My wrong-way sidewalk is at left

Even though there was clearance, I waited until the operater was digging again before I walked past

Immediately after passing by all this interesting construction, I noticed a constant honking. Actually it sounded rather squeaky for a honk. Before long, I made the correlation that this honk occurred whenever I was not on smooth pavement. Might Rantwick have flown south to keep an eye on me?

Not seeing Rantwick, I made it to the gym where I noticed an unusual amount of bike parking congestion, necessitating my alternate secure locking technique, in which the U lock attaches the lock and through the rear wheel, with the cable looping around through itself to secure the front. This is not the MOST secure, but allows excellent security for all the expensive stuff and good security for the front wheel. The OTHER bike, you will note, has no locking at all for its front wheel. Kermit is smiling because he is happy with my secure locking technique.

When I trudged into the gym, the guy at the counter asked if I took a picture to prove I actually rode my bike to the gym. I replied that, no, I just took pictures of good and bad bike locking. He then told me that the other bike was HIS, and that he was able to keep an eye on it. I said that was good, but it only took a second to snag that really nice looking front wheel. I did, however, refrain from a demonstration when I left. Speaking of which, some motorists really DO need to drive to the gym more often, so that the paramedics do not have to come and revive them. It's cycling that's dangerous? At least I don't think this was a major emergency. The paramedics didn't appear to be in a big rush to get inside.

After some relaxing coffee, I zipped, home, accompanied by MORE HONKING! The offending honker was finally captured in pixels, and is affecting a smile below. Yes, it was Kermit who has suddenly adopted a policy of alerting me when smooth pavement is not present. Just another warm and pleasant Saturday morning in Northeast Tarrant County.

Kermit, looking all innocent at the end of the morning outing. Doesn't he look happy, though?