Bad Bike

My wife's bike is a Trek Pure. It's just a junky bike, built for people that ride a bike four or five times before hanging them up in the garage. I realized that pretty early on, but, so far, with a lot of high strength Locktite, I've kept it running. I may have to change out the rear freewheel pretty soon. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any close-ratio seven speed freewheels for sale.

Can anybody tell me why someone would build a bike with a left-hand thread on the right crank and not put any form of positive retention on the cartridge bearing?

Falcon H, Bubba

Liftoff is 5:26 into the Video - They're Going to Make Space Exciting Again!

When I was just a boy, we went to the Moon. Shortly after I graduated from high school, we went to the Moon for the (until sometime in the future) last time. I vividly recall the moment that Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon. That was nearly 45 years ago. Almost a Half Century. On occasion, I wonder if we have peaked and are on a long, slow decline like that which resulted in the demise of the Roman Empire. Even to this day, the Saturn V Rocket remains the most powerful launch vehicle that mankind has ever produced. At launch, it put out just under 8 million pounds of thrust and put as much as 310,000 pounds into low Earth orbit. In the times since before any of my children were born, newsworthy space travel consisted of Space Shuttle explosions.

However, events such as yesterday's SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch give me hope that our greatest times may still lie ahead. While the Falcon Heavy has less than half the payload of the Saturn V, it is a major step back into the Future. SpaceX is a company that I've never worked for, though I worked in what is now their Hawthorne facility when Northrop produced 747 structure there and I also worked for Rocketdyne when they were designing the Space Shuttle engines. John Glenn was a part of our extended family and my father worked on the Saturn V for Boeing. I pay a lot of attention to what goes on with humanity's reach into space. You might say it's in my blood.

The movie, "The Right Stuff" had a phrase spoken when someone did well. I recall it as "Fuckin A, Bubba!" Well, now we can say "Falcon H, Bubba." It may be more polite, but it is entirely accurate and we can all look forward to seeing what comes next. I know that SpaceX is planning a larger rocket, known as the "BFR." I won't speculate on what BFR might be an acronym for, but I'll guess it is in the same spirit as the bubba comments in "The Right Stuff." When the BFR launches, we will finally go beyond what we accomplished with the Saturn V back in 1967.

Yup, perhaps our best days DO lie ahead, though probably none of our astronauts that went to the Moon will see mankind first set foot on Mars.

Cycle RAT

Hmm, Where Might this Colorful Tree Be? Annie SAID Bikes had to be Involved!

Back in the day, Rantwick held an annual "Rantwick Autumn Throwdown;" RAT for short. It started when he looked for challengers to "The King of Autumn." The King was a spectacular tree. After a few years, seems it was the third or fourth RAT, Anniebikes took up the responsibility, and now it's just a fond memory. JUST IN CASE, however, at top is my own mysterious RAT entry for this year. It was shot somewhere north of Texas and east of Washington. For those still mystified, the photo at bottom clears up the "cycle" part of this title and also the particular locale.

Tending to the Bikes on an Autumn Tour

Bike Month Wrapup

Bike to Work Shot

I had fun this bike month. Like most any other month of commuting by bike. However, I did,set a minor milestone that advocates might point out as a measure of how bike month is working for all of us.

Checking my log records, I noticed that I commuted more times this May than ever before. I rode to work 22 times in May, eclipsing the previous high of 21 times in May 2011. Bike commuting is UP! By my calculation, that'd be nearly a 5% increase year-over-year.

Of course, last year, May 1 was on a Sunday, and I try to avoid riding to work on weekends whenever possible. As I've noted in the past, figures don't lie, but liars DO figure.

Hope y'all had a good bike month yourselves!

This Photo is IRRELEVANT TO THIS POST - Well, Other Than It's Been a Long Time Since Buffalo Appeared in this Blog...

Bike to Work Conflict

Last week, during “Bike to Work” week, I received the email shown above from the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

I’ve received a number of such items from time to time, but this time, I pondered the matter a little, and THAT caused me to wonder about things. For example, what is the cutoff between “regular” and “older” adults? Are “older” adults that ride their bikes to work supposed to stop, heeding the direction to limit outside activity or are they supposed to ride their bikes in order to cut air pollution? Or are they only supposed to do that until they pick up one of the lung disorders cited? Will Fort Worth have a “moment of silence” for the cyclists that aren’t at the “Bike to Work” event because they followed the advice to limit their outside activity? What about people that have to WORK outside? Are they simply supposed to take vacation? Actually, I asked the“tryparkingit” lady at the event, and she was well aware of the conflicting advice. She took my queries in stride, and I found that air pollution alerts come in “watch” and “warning” levels just as tornado alerts do. A “warning” is much more serious. Their email advice in future omits the encouragement to bike or walk on “warning” days. To my mind, this seems like a negative feedback loop. When it pollutes, you have to pollute when you wouldn't normally. Seems sort of topsy turvy to me. How about - when it is polluted, everyone takes the day off without pay. Maybe motorists would appreciate cyclists more when they get to go back to work. Nah, call me a dreamer!

Bottom line – This is a classic governmental conflict between a short-term event and long-term advice. After all, I think few of us would volunteer to simply stop breathing during the duration of one of these events. Probably fewer of us will consider that the items advised do not affect many major sources of local air pollution. Certainly cars make a lot of smog, but the same government that wants us to “drive less” encourages more driving by building more freeways and other highways that encourage people to drive more and further. Few politicians will make useful suggestions about what local governments can or should do to avoid such events in the future. Instead, we’re told to “limit outdoor activity.” And campaign promises promise cheaper gas. So the cycle continues.

On a more positive note, I got some "Air Quality Index Crayons." Read the description on each.

Danger Ahead



On the Same Stretch as in the Photo, the Oncoming Motorist "Froze"
at the Sight of a Cyclist Stopped at a Stop Sign. Clearly, the DANGER Here was
That the "Nice" Motorist Would be Rear Ended, With Me Watching the Whole Thing

Not all is cheery goodness on my daily commute. On Thursday, I encountered two dangerous motorist behaviors - within a two block distance. In the first case, I would have been a mere witness to a fiery crash my existence caused. In the second case, it could have gotten a little more personal, had I not been able to take matters in hand.
Situation 1: Cyclist (yours truly) is stopped on the side street, signaling his intent to make a right onto an arterial when traffic permits. This occurs pretty much every day for just about any cyclist. However, this time, the oncoming eastbound motorist on the arterial STOPS. Clearly, this motorist has encountered enough scofflaws on bikes to throw the rules of the road completely out the window. Luckily, the traffic behind this motorist stopped as well rather than creating the fiery mess. After an awkward delay, and the motorist finally realizing that incorrectly giving up his right of way would mean he would be STUCK behind a SLOW cyclist (and he had no way to know how slow, or that I DO control a narrow lane), he finally proceeded. As did the motorist who stopped behind him. Even for me, politeness has its limits. If motorists were required to have their cell phone numbers in their windows, I'd have called to inquire what was he thinking?

At this point, I breathed a sigh of relief and made my delayed right turn

Situation 2: Now, the cyclist is on the arterial, pedaling east, signaling his intent to make a left off that arterial when a reasonable gap appears. And that gap isn't far off. Instead, ANOTHER motorist, headed west - right in front of that gap decides to stop and be "nice." This time, the cyclist is not so amused at the motoring games. THIS time, the eastbound overtaking motorist will be overtaking HIM, and the westbound overtaking motorist behind the "nice" lady is closing that gap rapidly. In short, time is running out while some lady is sitting right IN THE WAY. Smiling. The cyclist waves her on frantically. Frustrated, he finally makes his turn behind her when she creeps far enough forward to permit it. While perfectly safe, that gap was smaller than I like. It wasn't quite so bad because the motorist behind the "nice lady" had slowed somewhat. I do regret I didn't think of waving to him as I finished my turn. He was in a situation not of his own making.

And Then, ANOTHER "Nice" Motorist Froze, Right About Where the Silver Oncoming Car is in the Photo
I Was About Where the SUV Was, Signaling My Turn Intent. MY Turn to Start About All the Gaps Closing

Oh, I forgot.

Situation 3: While still shaking his head over the sheer unnecessity of situations 1 and 2, cyclist sees a third motorist, running the stop sign off to his left and coming at him. He waves, and blows a kiss to that motorist, and yells "hello, dear." Sometimes we forgive motorist transgressions in the interest of familial harmony. At least she didn't honk at me today. "Thanks, dearest!" And, for the record, the motorist in situation 3 SWEARS she made a full and complete stop.

"Share the Road?" Darn Bikers Ought to be OFF the Road! OTOH, I think as a Pedestrian,
I'd Rather Not Be Sharing the Sidewalk with a Harley

Filter or Permeate

Proceeding Through This Intersection, Filtering Seems Like the Only Alternative to a LONG Wait, Stuck in Amongst Motorists

First off, two "cycling" terms:

• Filter - The practice that many cyclists adopt when coming upon a lot of motorists waiting at a red light. It consists of moving forward past all the motorists waiting in line for the light to change. A variation on this practice, which is considered smarter, is to stop one or two cars BACK from the front of the line so as to avoid inadvertently getting hit when the light turns green.
• Permeable - An area that presents lots of route choices for a cyclist. Grid street arrangements are typically great for permeability. Geographic obstacles such as rivers like the DFW Trinity River or lakes greatly reduce permeability. Some road arrangements also greatly reduce permeability even when no geographic obstacles exist.

Way back when, until April of 2009, I rode my v1 commute. The return home usually included a segment northward on Bedford Euless Road that crossed the Airport Freeway (Texas 183) at the bottom of the hill described here. That intersection is the one shown above. The photo, shot today, is more or less typical. My practice at that time was to "filter" forward until I stopped one car back from the front of the line. That would get me across the intersection and into the right lane when the light turned green, where all the motorists that made it through the light would pass using the left lane. The main risk of doing this was that, occasionally, a scofflaw in the right lane would proceed straight through the intersection rather than obey the RT Only markings. Such outlaws were only a minor problem for me, as my routine head check would invariably alert me to the onrushing lawbreaker, and I could simply delay my move to the right until the cheater passed to my right. I try to show the situation with arrows in the photo below, during a break in the traffic. This situation only arose on the ride home. On the ride to work, in the opposite direction, this intersection invariably proved trouble free and I always get through on one light cycle.

The Basic Intersection Arrangement When Traffic Clears Out

However, when I began my v3 commute last November, I that permeability is much nicer than filtering for providing a pleasant ride home. That notion was reinforced earlier this week when, just for the heck of it, I elected to proceed on the old route. Unlike the olden days, I'm a lot more reluctant to filter. Among other things, my motorists can get a little snippy if they have to pass a cyclist for a second time, though the availability of the second lane after the intersection makes doing so pretty simple and most of the motorists are fairly tolerant. Mostly, I don't filter due to changes in me. Maybe I've internalized the "Same road, same rules," and all that. Maybe I'm simply getting all soft.

Well, to make a long story short, after sitting through two light cycles, I bailed out and moved into the RT Only lane and then made a free right turn onto the Airport Freeway Service Road. That got me back on track, with only a frustratingly long minute delay. If you want to see how long a minute can seem, watch a video of a full traffic light cycle change from red, through green, and back to red. It reminded me of how obstructive a cyclist can seem to a motorist. Even a few seconds SEEMS like forever.

Mostly, nowadays, in my v3 commute, I take a different route, shown below. It is an alley behind the mini mall and bypasses the intersection entirely. What's more, there is no cross traffic, and I rarely encounter any vehicle of any sort in the alley. It's even got smooth pavement. It is, simply put, "permeable." It is possible that Rantwick's mom might approve since it avoids any parking lot nonsense while also getting the job of getting places done. It illustrates the advantage of permeability over filtering. I'm not the only one that has discovered such cool route variations. PaddyAnne discovered a permeable route option here, Keri discovered one here, and even I have discovered such alternatives here and here. On the other hand, as here, not all these permeable alternatives will work out.



Instead of Stressing Out at the Intersection Above, Nowadays, I Just Cruise Down This Permeable Alternative
The Photo Shows Above Normal Traffic at Rush Hour - Usually, There is No Vehicle Parked Behind the Distant Stereo Shop



"How do I get in on the good times?" you might wonder. Well, ask your fellow commuters is one means that might work. Another is to look at Bing's aerial view and Google's satellite view. They may reveal alternatives that will make your commute sweeter and possibly quicker and safer as well.

As for me, does my "permeable" alternative speed things up? Well, actually no. It has the downside of routing me directly past the coffee store of a major coffee chain and slows me down by a full 20 minutes. More if there are interesting blog posts on the free Wi Fi. It IS low stress, at least unless I take advantage of a free refill. Still, one must make sacrifices!

UPDATE - UNFILTERED CAN RAISE AWKWARD QUESTIONS

Today, looking down Bedford Euless, I saw a traffic-free red light. Seeing a rare opportunity, I made an unfiltered dash to the light where I was legitimately right at the front of the line, and then swept home via the quickest route. Actually, THAT was a source of an awkward question: "Why did you get home so early, dear?"  "Uh, I rode home really really fast just because I love you, sweetheart. Yeah, that's it."

I didn't let on that I find the combination of a trafic-free intersection and a quick route to be even more irresistible than a cup of coffee from a major chain based in Seattle. Absence of that cup of coffee accounted for most of the early arrival. Some things are better left unsaid.

Line in the Sand

Rantwick has made a challenge to all comers for a fall color photo to challenge the "King of Autumn." Figuratively, he's drawn a line in the sand, and everyone in Texas knows about lines and sand. It brings up images of Santy Anny and long odds. John Wayne playing Davy Crockett. Rantwick's got the numbers on his side, living in a place where sugar maples abound. But we got spunk.

Last year, I did a fall color post, here.

November 2, 2009. North Texas Fall Color. Will We Top it This Year?

It's still quite a ways until early November, but Texas is a big place and we're SURE to have a good tree somewhere, right? Right? If not from Texas, perhaps some other loyal reader. Cross that line - if you dare.