Inspired by Scott

On occasion before, I have admitted to aviation inspiration in my cycling, such as here, here, and here. In my last cycling commute, on April 5th, I took my cycling commute inspiration from another source; a fellow University of Washington alum. Scott Crossfield.

Scott appeared in a supporting role in "The Right Stuff" as a "civilian pilot" of the D558-2 that was the first plane to exceed Mach 2. Less well known was his attitude towards flight that was demonstrated in his role as chief contractor test pilot in the X-15 program. Scott endured much in that program, including a vehicle that exploded under him, and another that broke as he performed an emergency landing. Even so, in his last X-15 flight, he followed orders and did not exceed Mach 3 or climb into space. Watch the embedded video starting 46 minutes and 50 seconds in and for the following minute.

That example was my inspiration for my commute on April 5th. I went in and came home. No close calls, no "death on my left," no attempts to advocate cycling by exaggerating its danger (no links for this one, but I'm sure my loyal reader can think of many such sites and organizations). Simply getting the job done.

Thanks, Scott. UW Aero Class of 1947. Watch starting at about 46 minutes and 50 seconds in to the video. The entire show is, IMO, worth watching but that segment contains Scott's recollections and attitude. Simply getting the job done. So now we can move on to new topics...

Scott Crossfield Gets the Job Done Starting at 46:50

 

Sometimes, Speed is a Savior

Speed Can be Your FRIEND - From Wikipedia
However, THIS Guy Needs No Help for Others to Know His Speed

There is a perception that you have to ride fast to operate on the road amongst the motorized traffic. Certainly, it is easier for an overtaking car to run you down and squish you like a squirrel if you are riding at 10mph than if you are riding at 20mph. Still, considering that on a straight road a motorist will see you at least a block or two away, they don't have to have the reaction times of test pilots to miss even the slowest cyclist. From the stories in newspapers that I read, the common reason cyclists get hit from behind is they are riding on a shoulder, or maybe even standing on the sidewalk, and some dweeb simply runs off the road and smacks them. Yes, I know, our driver licensing system seems to be a little less than perfect, but that is not the point today.

How Close Can a Car Get Before Reacting and Still Not Run You Down?
Remember, They Could Get MUCH Closer and Still Miss You With a Simple Lane Change

Cyclists benefit, when being overtaken, by the mistaken notion almost all motorists have that the cyclists are going much slower than they are, regardless of whether they ride fast or slow. "Those cyclists are SO slow!" I will never forget the sworn testimony of a police officer (a trained observer) at the ChipSeal trial that Chip was going about 8mph. In fact, Chip was going closer to 20 at that moment in the video. Had I had less self control, I'd have gotten thrown out of the courtroom for contempt after rolling around on the floor in hysterical laughter. Even the normally expressive Chip looked dumbfounded and actually disappointed, which made keeping my mouth shut even harder. Cycling advocates, such as here, note that the notion you need to ride quickly to be safe is mistaken, and they are right. While a lot of cyclists feel bad about taking the lane while doing 10mph when motorists occasionally exceed the posted limit, one wonders if their attitude might brighten a bit if they realized the motorists really figured that the obnoxious cyclist was hogging the road while going about 4mph. What's more, they'll claim that regardless of where the cyclist rides on the actual road surface. I don't know why this is so - in college I changed majors from psychology to engineering. Go ask someone else if you want to know the basis for motorist judgment errors. All I know is that's what they think. OUR task is to use that knowledge to our advantage.

Why, then, you might ask, did I choose the title I did for this post? Well, it is very simple. As in most road conflict, THE MAIN DANGER IS AHEAD. What this means is that overtaking motorists make their moves early to pass the poky cyclist. Those making turns and such up ahead often misjudge how quickly I am coming on. And those, up ahead, represent the MAIN DANGER.

Of course, riding even faster compared to what a motorist expects usually only makes things worse. Really, the only real benefit of cycling in a vehicular manner is that the increased dangers when you are going fast are much less than behaving in a manner that other traffic does not expect. In other words, the penalties of riding fast are less if you move as others expect a vehicle to move. That is a lot of the secret to low Dutch and Danish cycling fatalities - people simply mostly ride slower compared to the US. If you doubt it, ride at 20mph on a street with traffic versus try to ride at 20mph against traffic on a crowded sidewalk. Actually, simply take my word for it. I don't want to be hauled into court by some grieving survivor.

Sometimes, however, speed doesn't kill, but helps. I was reminded of this on Thursday when I got honked at by a motorist. Getting honked at is pretty unusual in itself for me, but this one might have been even stranger. What is more, speed might well have avoided the encounter completely. Actually, I'm being slightly misleading because it wasn't really speed that was needed as much as an "impression" of speed. A motorist up ahead that OVERESTIMATES my speed gives me an extra margin. During daylight, this is a tough thing to achieve. BUT, sometimes, the darkness can be a cyclist's friend.

I was Headed Southwest in the Dark, Down the Hill, Toward the Camera, About Where the Driver of the Silver Car Was
On Thursday, Perhaps a Sign Saying "Caution - Motorists Blowing Stop Signs"
Would Have Been Most Appropriate

It was dark out as I headed southwest on Bedford-Euless Road on Thursday morning. This is a sweet, five lane road I ride every morning on the way to work. Off to the right, within 50 feet of the now departed sign in the photo, a motorist, seeing my Mighty P7 Headlight on the "low" setting (about as bright as most better bike lights in the high setting), the guy decided to blow the stop sign until he realized the (inappropriate word omitted) cyclist was a LOT faster than he expected. I typically hit about 25-30mph on that slight downhill stretch. Well, to make a short story even shorter, instead of either following the law or hitting the accelerator to attempt a clean getaway, he stopped with the nose of his car right about in the middle of my lane. Then, to my surprise, the scofflaw decided to honk at me. Maybe he was trying to drive as if invisible and wondered if I might not have noticed the 4000lb missile violating my right of way. Duh - being a suburban road, such events catch my notice. Well, no actual evasive action was needed, other than to avoid mindless swerving as I laughed after passing the honker and tried to imagine the reasons for the honk. If this post was about lane position instead of speed, it might have illustrated the benefits of riding in "the line of sweetness."

Light Level on Thursday - Motorist Blows Stop Sign and Honks

Light Level on Friday - Another Boring Ride - Sidestreet Motorists Behaved Themselves

Bike Light at Left, Wimpy VW High Beams at Right. Those Lights at Left are COMING FAST!

Friday, I made corrective action. Hereafter, in the dark, I ride with my headlight on the "bright" setting. To any traffic up ahead, the light looks like an oncoming Harley and all motorists know THOSE bad boys are usually doing at LEAST 60. Those motorists, up ahead in the dark, deciding whether or not to blow those stop signs will probably hesitate, which will be all the time I need before the motorist realizes it was only a poky cyclist that just swept by on THEIR arterial. Speed is a savior. Well, maybe the impression of speed. Or maybe it is merely the GINORMOUS OPTICAL POWER of the Mighty P7, AKA "the Flamethrower."

Is that Marlon Brando on a Harley in the Dark?
Those Durn, Sneaky (Inappropriate Term Deleted) Cyclists!

PS: It might also be the first real legitimate reason I have ever run across to add a front reflector to the front of a bike. It also suggests a loudspeaker to play the sounds of a loud motorcycle might pay off compared to the more conventional "high vis." How DOES one create the impression of an attack aircraft beginning a strafing run?

Motorists Would be RELUCTANT to Blow a Stop Sign With One of THESE Bearing Down!
I Think I'd Need Speakers Because These Bad Boys Don't Use Lights When They Come...

Frenchy Forgot to Mention Something

Mostly in this blog, I write about bike items. However, on occasion I mention Jaguars. I used to show them. Actually I also used to race them in Autocross. The Jaguar Club version of SCCA Solo 1 racing. In it, you run the car as fast as you can through a parking lot course marked by cones. It sharpens your driving skills and improves your understanding of what your vehicle will do at its limit. That understanding helps in normal driving as well. It's why my eldest daughter ran her first autocross while on her learner's permit. One basic technique is outlined in The Red Car:

"...Frenchy went into the corners...along an invisible line that slanted diagonally across the corner from outside edge to outside edge... The little car went so close to the inside...at the corner's point that...Hap could feel that a butterfly's weight of extra pressure...would break the car loose... But Fenchy never once gave it that extra butterfly's weight..."

Steve A, Cutting to the Inside of a Corner in Vancouver
Drive Smoother to Drive Faster

I don't drive my car that way on city streets, at least not obviously, but if you look at car wheel tracks on any road, you will observe that they move from side to side within a lane depending on curb and turn situations as well as the lane width. However, a bike is a lot narrower than a car, and I typically utilize more of the road when cornering than would be decent for my motoring companions. Coming to a right turn, I'll usually be riding roughly at the right side of the left wheel track in a position (the line of sweetness) where any following motorist will certainly not to have to watch extra carefully to notice my presence (SIN or no). As I near the corner, I will use the full lane available to me and move right within the lane as I approach the apex of the turn; finishing up in the new direction in about the same lane position on the new road. In effect, while I don't cut real close to the curb (after all, one doesn't want to ride through a debris field), I am doing exactly what Frenchy was doing on a closed course, albeit in a less dramatic fashion. Usually, this is perfectly safe and allows a fast turn while only yielding control of the lane at the sharpest point in the corner. A point at which I am invariably traveling faster than any following motorist.

Frenchy forgot one thing. He forgot to mention that cars and bikes have different turning characteristics because of the difference in width and wheelbase, and even cars turn differently when the road is slick than when it is dry. Usually, this doesn't matter, but we've accumulated a lot of loose road rubble due to the recent freezes and this has accumulated where motorist wheel tracks don't sweep it away the same way as usual. Like at the inside point of corners. This morning, making a turn I make every day at about 20mph, my apex was about a foot closer to the curb than normal (I've been leaving more room than usual in case I hit a patch of gravel) when my rear tire crossed gravel and swung out suddenly as if there was one too many butterflies applying pressure to the tire. No, I didn't fall, but I simply don't like my bike to do something unexpected while I'm on it on a public road. Maybe it's an "engineer thing." It was a reminder that the natural turning paths of bikes and cars are even more different than are the turning paths of skiers versus snowboarders. Frenchy was driving a sport car amongst other sport cars. His turn strategy would have been far different had he been driving an RV - or a bike. It was a good reminder. Bikes ARE different.

That Patch of Gravel Was Certainly Inconvenient for a Cyclist
Turning Smoother to Ride Faster

Disappointment

"Act like a vehicle and get treated like a vehicle" is one of the things you get taught in bicycle school. I think, however, my instructors didn't have THIS in mind. On Colleyville Terrace, in Colleyville, apparently  they've had scofflaw motorists conducting their vehicles faster than the 30mph that is deemed proper for this residential connector street.

For the last week and a half, the Colleyville PD had a radar trailer set up to advise those of us that were westbound, just how fast we were going. Before bicycle class, I'd typically clock somewhere between 18 and 22mph (it's slightly downhill - remember, I'm an old "stocky" guy, even if I sometimes ride as if I were six when mud puddles are around). This week, full of inspiration, I decided to post red numbers. Yesterday, I clocked 33mph through the gun. "But Officer, I was just keeping up with the rest of traffic and, besides, would a judge really believe a cyclist was speeding?" Win or lose, I'd frame the ticket for comfort in my dotage. And yes, I DID do a full stop at the sign on the other side of the trailer, complete with a proper, if awkward, stop signal, followed by the RT signal with the other arm. I know this sounds a little contradictory, but I figure that motorists won't hold speeding against a cyclist, while they WILL hold failing to signal against one. Go figure.

Today, I decided to take a picture of the radar readout. I thought the old legs might have another 2mph in them. Normally, I don't take pictures while on a moving bike, but this was such an inoffensive street that I decided to make an exception. Darn, those pesky Colleyville Police moved the radar trailer. Chalk it up to the Jaguar cars influence. I plead guilty. I'm just bad, and I didn't even get a readout photo. As I tell my wife (on rare occasions), "What do you expect, I'm just the idiot my wife married. What's YOUR excuse?"

The Fastest Route Home

The fastest route home is not the smoothest, nor is it one with motorists waving at you to speed you along. The fastest route home is not the most scenic, nor shadier than most. The fastest route home doesn't wend by Starbucks, nor does it encourage waving to the neighborhood dogs. Sometimes, it's not even the shortest. The fastest route can have tough traffic.

I almost never take the fastest route home, but I did today. Sometimes you just have to throw all the frills aside when everything's right.

One hour nineteen minutes - on the way home - on Buddy. Clean bikes run fast. The north wind helped a little, too...

Speed, Is It What We Need?

One thing about a long commute is there is lots of time to think about bike commuting blog posts. Thanks to Rantwick, you get THIS one tonight instead of a couple of others I was considering.

It's often been said that vehicular cycling requires speed. That's nonsense, but how to get the reasons across to people? I'd been struggling with that for months, even coming up with ways people can experimentally demonstrate it to themselves. I did five drafts of a post at Cycle*Dallas before deleting it for good. Rantwick's post today, gave me the basis for a simple logic trail. "You are as safe or more safe on a bike than you are in a car."

Well, why should a bike be safer than a car? You've got no airbags or seatbelts, you can't stop as well, and you're not gonna just fall over in a car. The reason for the safety is pretty simple, actually - you're going a lot slower on a bike.

Now throw vehicular cycling (and vehicular driving) into the mix. If you're going REALLY REALLY slow, at pedestrian speeds, VC or not doesn't matter very much. Ride down the sidewalk the wrong way at 4mph and you're not at a big risk, though you're still not as safe as a REAL pedestrian since you can't jump aside. Ditto if you drive around real slow - even if you're going down the street the wrong way. Either way, you're bog simple for faster traffic to avoid - and they'll probably get out and offer to help push if you're in your car. I don't, however, recommend you try to drive your car real slow on a sidewalk. The police will not understand.

Now, ramp it up to 12mph. Things are happening three times as fast, and any impact imparts NINE times the energy. Suddenly, not following rules makes it MUCH more likely that you're gonna collide with something and it'll hurt a lot more. That's true whether you're riding a bike or driving a car. Suddenly, following rules has a much bigger payoff. That payoff comes because you are less able to avoid hazards and you're now more difficult for faster traffic to avoid if you're NOT predictable.

Now, ramp it up to 40mph. You'd be INSANE to ride (probably with the help of a hill) or drive at these speeds without following predictable (vehicular) rules. Conclusion: it's not that you need to ride fast to ride vehicularly, but if you ARE going to ride fast, the consequences of NOT riding vehicularly get really ugly. The FASTER you go, the less viable any other approach becomes. Doubt it? Read the cycling accident reports - they're filled with people shooting across crosswalks and getting hit or shooting up to the right of trucks and getting hit or ---

Hence the basis for the nonsensical notion that VC requires speed. Really, it's speed that requires VC. If you're just going to stay perfectly still, VC is completely irrelevant. There I said it. Putting it another way, if operating vehicularly required speed, wouldn't all roads (not just a few freeways) have minimum posted speeds instead of maximum speeds?

PS: I LOVE that Rantwick salute picture!

WEDNESDAY UPDATE: The Force must be strong today. Go here or here to see a video of someone operating in a non vehicular fashion at 20mph, along with the guy's frame of mind. I kept waiting for the splat.

When I See Hell's Gate, I'll Ride There Too!

I'm off to work tomorrow morning and then on the HH100 (work is nearly 1/4 the way there). If I'm lucky, I'll see these guys while I'm there. If I'm not, I'll be one of the early morning trauma injuries that are much more common than heat-related ailments. Based on the forecast, I sneer at what Wichita Falls tries to pass off as "hot" this year. Windy? 13mph isn't wind, it's a gentle breeze.

Lucky or not, it'll be an item checked off the bucket list. Even commuters like a little fun once in a while. The road bike's stripped down and we're ready to roll...

Quiz #2 in the Spirit of the Tour

My candidate for greatest road race cyclist. No prizes other than satisfaction on this one and I imagine many have their own candidates. His bona fides follow:

• Finished on the podium in seven Tours de France - every one he ever finished
• Only cyclist ever to have won all three Grand Tour events more than once
• Over 200 victories in 12 years
• Still active in the cycle racing world
• Born two months and two days after me

I guess that last rules out Eddy & Lance. Still haven't figured it out? More hints

• Ranked 2nd all-time by Daniel Marszalek - only Eddy ranks higher (Lance is #15 which seems a tad low in my book)
• Last Frenchman to win the Tour de France
• Team mate with Greg LeMond for his last TdF win, and for Greg's first
• Asked if he feared Eddy "Cannibal" Merckx, he replied "He has a head, two arms, two legs, just as I"
• And, for ChipSeal's benefit, a quote - "As long as I breathe, I attack."

Give up? Answer here.

Bike Wisdom from Frenchy

From The Red Car:

"When you have a little engine, a good little engine but an engine that is not big, you must learn where is her best power, and you must drive her there, eh?"

Keep that cadence up!