Load Limits and Towing Capacity

How Much Can I Tow in this Trailer? Mac & Cheese for the Local Food Bank!

Yesterday, I used my "free to me" trailer for grocery shopping - it's nice not to have to worry about fitting everything in a bag or even two, and backpacks can be a PIA. Starting out, however, cargo capacity became a question when I started out up a little slope in the parking lot to leave for home. Further on, I felt doubly privileged to shop in a place as flat as Ocean Shores, Washington.

In the motor vehicle world, load limits and towing capacity are pretty cut and dried. What's more, manufacturers publish their values, though these are not always highlighted when the numbers don't support selling vehicles to people.

Two major values include:

• Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) - this is the maximum amount the vehicle is rated which includes the vehicle itself, fuel and oil, and all payload (passengers, pets and luggage, including any roof racks and contents thereof). Our Subaru Outback has a GVWR rating of 4,695 pounds, since its empty weight is 3,600 pounds, that means we can carry a bit less than 1,000 pounds. If there are five people in the car, that doesn't leave a whole bunch leftover for luggage.
• Maximum Towing Capacity - this is the maximum amount the vehicle can safely tow. Some so-called utility vehicles, such as the Vokswagen Allroad have no approved towing capacity at all. Our Subaru Outback has a rated towing capacity of 2,700 pounds.

There are lots of other ratings, such as "Gross Combined Weight Rating," but these are not so easy to track down. It appears that Subaru simply lets you tow 2,700 pounds whether the vehicle itself is full or empty.

How Does This Apply to Bikes?
In the bicycle world, these values are not so easy to find. It's pretty easy to find out the "empty weight" of most new bicycles, but payload - not so much. It's pretty clear some bikes have a lot more payload capacity than others - tandem bikes, for example, have uprated wheels to support the extra weight, but these values are NOT easy to find, though I have noticed that motorcycles and even electric scooters now specify a maxium payload (typically 240 pounds, and up to 400-500 for motorcycles). It gets even tougher when you start towing stuff with your bike. As in the case of cars, you can tow a lot more weight than the vehicle payload suggests. Our Subaru can tow nearly three times its payload. The Volkswagen that claims it is an Outback competitor can't tow anything. But how much is too much? Inquiring minds want to know! Does that spendy Trek Madone have a GVWR higher than the "Wallyworld Cheapie?" And what about that Dutch Cargo bike versus a Touring versus a Cyclocross bike?

I HAVE found a few items that relate. For example, here, they have a "calculator" and the site also lists weight capacities of 300 pounds for pretty heavy-duty looking trailers. Here, a site lists payload capacities for some bikes from major makers (sorry Surly owners, but no number for you!). Apparently, some manufacturers note that wheels are the weak link (Raleigh notes "All frames are tested to 550 pounds. It is the wheels that limit rider weight more than frames."), but there, the trail grows cold.

Harley Does it Different
While motorcycles are somewhere "in between," Harley Davidson uses a frame decal sticker with the GVWR on it. They also list the individual axle capacities. There's a discussion on motorcycle weight capabilities on Northwest Motorcycling Sound Rider, here. The link even has a couple of photos and discusses how difficult it was for him to find weight carrying capacity for some motorcycles.

Little Steps

Is Texas Food Local if You Buy it in Ocean Shores? Well, it's More Local than Chilean Produce

Chandra, in his excellent "Green Comotion" blog, recently made a post where he included much good information from Dr Mercola about the viability of our food and health aspects of food. That post was here.

One aspect of Dr Mercola's article could have been improved. While his nine recommendations are all very worthwhile, I'd suggest a few MORE for those of us that aren't in a position to go "all the way," but may have to motor a long way to get some of those foods while our local grocery is a short bike ride. For the vegans amongst us, you may want to close your eyes with regard to my final recommendation. I'll continue from where Dr Mercola left off, with an emphasis on "easy to do" items.

10. SHOP THE EDGES OF THE STORE
It is well known that most of the most highly processed foods are in the middle of the store. Hence, sites such as mass.gov recommend that you get most of your food around the edges of the store. They have a good generic diagram to show this which is reproduced below. Simply shopping the edges of the store will be a step in the right direction.

Your Store Will Probably Vary, but the Principles Still Work

11. TEXAS LOCAL IS BETTER THAN FURRIN STUFF
While in Ocean Shores, buying things like kale might be best if it comes from Grays Harbor County, it is still better to buy from Texas than from somewhere the produce must be airlifted.

12. SHOP BY BIKE
Dr Mercola failed to consider the effects of transport of the shopper on food usage. While the Ocean Shores IGA might lack somewhat in organic and other "good" choices, one wonders at the tradeoff between non-local produce bought locally, versus local produce bought non-locally. IGA is next door to the espresso stand and I bicycle by there each morning. The "local" source of Hoquiam produce is 30 miles away.

IGA - Official Grocery Store of Frankenbike and Kermit

13. SHOP A GOOD FARMER'S MARKET WHEN YOU'RE GOING BY
Ocean Shores DOES have a farmer's market on summer weekends. Oddly, little of the produce at this market is produced anywhere close to Ocean Shores. Still, I go there on my bike. See rule 12. However, we've taken to stopping by the Hoquiam Farmer's Market when we have occasion to motor over in that direction. Their produce is mostly grown in Grays Harbor County and there're a lot of organic items.



Hoquiam Farmer's Market Has No Decent Bike Parking and is a LONG Ways from OS, but has EXCELLENT Organic Produce
The Lettuce is Grown by the Grizzlies (Hoquiam High School)

14. DIG FOR ALL YOU'RE WORTH
Vegans please close your eyes now. The rest of you may read the newspaper headline below. 'Nuff sed.



Definitely "NON GMO" and Locally Sourced. For the Record, Clam Guns do NOT Have "High Capacity Magazines"

 

I Love Trains, BUT

Over at Carbon Trace, is a post where High Speed Rail is extolled. I really WANT to be a rail fan, but I'm also a skeptic. I LIKE trains and I have an annual pass for TRE/DART in my wallet as I write this. OTOH, let's look at what actually happens when government gets in the middle of transportation. More specifically, let's ignore all the huge subsidies that happen to help cars push other road users off the road and focus ONLY on rail. More specifically, let's ignore light rail and focus on one specific trip.

I went to the Amtrak website. I found that I could book a trip from Dallas to Fort Worth in March. It would cost $7 and would take one hour and thirty five minutes to get from Dallas to Fort Worth. As far as I can tell, I have one choice each day, and it'd cost a bundle to bring my bike along. The site isn't too easy to use, so I can't really say for sure if I might be able to go sometime sooner, but that is definitely the transit time and price.

ON THE OTHER HAND, should I have happened upon a totally different website, that of TRE, I would have found that I could get from Dallas to Fort Worth, via train, any day of the week I wished except Sunday, with many choices and no problems if I wanted to bring my bike along. The price for a one-way trip? $3.75. Actually, for 50 cents more than the price of that government-subsidized Amtrak ticket, I can buy a government-subsidized TRE ticket that'd let me ride around the entire DFW metroplex all day, bike in tow, until I simply dropped from nervous exhaustion.

Oh, I forgot, the cheap TRE route takes 58 minutes. I can leave Dallas after the Amtrak train and be there at the destination to greet the arriving train.

Certainly, Amtrak is in a different market than TRE, but IMHO, it seems that Amtrak would need LESS of my tax dollars if they weren't totally clueless. $7 to go from Dallas to Fort Worth? You gotta be kidding me. It's no wonder that rail in the US is on its knees. What's more, these guys seem pretty clueless that there are other competitors out there called "airlines" that are faster, with more flexible prices. Price out how much it'd cost to travel by train from Florida to Washington State, versus the price to fly. What's more, compare the advance booking necessary. If this is what we have for trains, it really MIGHT be better to simply pull the plug. Certainly this is not a wise use of the tax money extracted from me each year - to offer a poor service at twice the price of other options.

At least bikes don't depend on government subsidies and I hope it stays that way. UPDATE - nothing less than $9 on AMTRAK through August. You CAN ride for $7.50 if you wait until September - or else ride today for half the price on TRE WITH your bike.

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

What’s in YOUR Purse?

Steve's Purse, Complete with Rear Light and Stylish Shoulder Strap

This week, I realized I’ve started carrying a purse. I didn’t do it on purpose. It just happened. Some purses are made by Vera Bradley or Louis Vuitton. Mine was made by Topeak. Realization dawned when I went in to Starbucks on Tuesday and left Buddy outside. I unclipped my purse from the back and dug through it for my wallet. Then I dug out the cell phone and my glasses so I could look at a few blogs before the last leg home. Wednesday morning, on the radio, they talked about a survey of what women carry in their purses. Sunblock may not exactly be the same as makeup, but they are at least generically related.

Here’s what I carry in my purse:

• AAA batteries
• Badge
• Cell phone
• Coffee syrup and Cheese sticks
• Extra Planet Bike rear light (they’re small and light)
• Glasses
• Gloves, if I’m not wearing them
• Keys
• Lunch
• Plastic bags to keep stuff dry (if rain may start)
• Seasonal clothing items during colder seasons
• Spare tube, minitool, pump, tire irons, and patch kit
• Sunblock
• Sunglasses, if I’m not wearing them
• Wallet
• Whatever else needs carrying

Men's Purses Tend to Have Different Contents Than Women's Ones

How did all this happen? Well, as it turns out, I rode enough miles during August that I was getting a bit sore. This resulted in me departing from my norm and wearing cycling shorts. Yes, despite my usual practice of wearing real clothes for my commute, I DO own some specialized items intended for cycling. Well, there aren’t a lot of places to keep “stuff” in cycling shorts. Even if you wear a cycling jersey and a SPI Belt, it turns out you are well down on storage space compared to a good set of cargo shorts. So I use my Topeak purse.

Once you HAVE the purse, it simply makes sense to carry everything in it, including the SPI Belt.

After rereading this post, I decided to get into a ruthless weight savings mode. This morning, I left the extra Planet Bike light at home. Two rear lights and a rear reflector ought to be enough. Iron discipline...

Showing the Purse in Travel Mode Gives me an Excuse to Show the Gratuitous Shot of Buddy Again!

Real Hardcore

For your consideration, bikes that ride, in all weather. All year. The owners tend to go to big box stores to get them. You see these bikes all the time. Occasionally you'll see them in transit. They might be going with traffic. They might be going against traffic, or on a sidewalk. THIS is the mainstream of utility cycling in the USA nowadays. It's transportation.

Common Thread

Since New Year's, my commute has been uneventful. An uneventful, albeit long, commute gives me lots of time to think of different things to post about. Today, I pondered posting about how I fixed a wiggly Cateye headlight, or how it takes longer to get ready to ride on cold mornings, or posting about the motorist who last week passed very slowly, but otherwise safely (though illegally across a double yellow line), with his wife rolling down the window in freezing weather and pointing off to the right, saying something unintelligible; no doubt warning me against moving over too far towards the "Cyclist Pit of Doom" if I unaccountably abandoned the "line of sweetness." I also considered posting about some positive reinforcement I got this morning, or about how a comment by "cycler" almost tore my heart out. But it all came together in common threads.

First off, CommuteOrlando has an active discussion, here,  about "Roadway Terrorists." Next, I talked with a motorist who passed me this morning on the way to work. He joked about how I was hard to miss. I inquired if, seriously, there was something about my riding that made it difficult for him to decide how to proceed or if my riding made it harder for him to get where he was going. After consideration, he answered that, no, my intentions were crystal clear to him, he understood my signals, and knew exactly what I planned to do and how to drive to avoid any conflict or delay whatsoever. I quipped that if I understood him, the only way I was hard to miss, then, was if he was actually TRYING for an impact. He agreed that was the case. It was a morale boost that says I'm riding well when non cyclists don't have to ponder what I'm up to. Finally, came the item that made it all come together. In it, "cycler" commented:

"I got followed in a threatening way for about 6 blocks today by a dump truck pulling a trailer who was p-o'd that I was taking the lane because we were going down a smallish residential street with parking on both sides and an icy shoulder. He kept gunning his engine. I didn't have to look back- I could hear him, and it was very stressful for me. It didn't matter to him that I was going traffic speed- he wanted me out of his way, and as soon as I got into the bike lane further down the street, he passed me relatively closely and at a speed inappropriate to the size of the street.

"I basically agree with you I think about vehicular cycling being the best way, but I've gotta say it takes a lot of experience and a certain mental toughness to do it. I doubt we're ever going to get serious growth in bicycling if we can't provide some kind of infrastructure that doesn't require people to brave that kind of situation regularly, especially when they're getting started."

I first read the comment when I stopped at a store of "a major coffee chain based in Seattle" on the way home. It disturbed me, and I thought about it the rest of the way home. I considered that "cycler" did the right thing in not trying to move right - the trailer could have easily dragged her under its wheels, and the driver would not have appreciated the attempt at courtesy in any event. I also considered that the statement about experience is NOT correct - I made the final switch to riding vehicularly  in a single day. What it takes is an epiphany, which can occur with no experience or maybe never. Certainly experience can prepare one for vehicular cycling, but it does not lead to it. I know fairly new cyclists that ride vehicularly, and I know others that have ridden for a half century that do not. Those that have not experienced the epiphany are certain to be skeptical. I certainly was - until April 10, 2009.

Anyway, here's the common thread - jerks on the road get a lot of attention from cyclists, and, more seriously, psycho motorists are a weakness of vehicular cycling - being predictable is not a good thing when a motorist is determined to kill the cyclist - the predictable cyclist is easier to hit. BUT, the overwhelming majority of motorists are good people, that just want to go along, and get along, as is the case with cyclists. THAT is a common thread that unites road users of disparate types, and is a big factor in what some might consider "mental toughness" in me. If the crazies were anything more than a newsworthy but extremely rare fringe element, John Forester would not be alive today. This is really something to remember if an occasional jerk decides to try to push you around. If the jerk's a bully, he/she will back off if you avoid escalating the situation - which is something "cycler" avoided as much as she could - a "Keri Wave" might have helped or it might have made things worse. If the jerk's a serious criminal, the cyclist is in real trouble, since the jerk has abandoned all the rules of the road and of human decency. It might be small comfort, but a criminal might just as likely go after the cyclist on a sidewalk - or even out in an empty field.

Different people feel differently about various infrastructure for cyclists to use, and revised laws that may or may not help cyclists. It behooves us to remember that bad infrastructure and bad laws can always be removed later. What we all have in common is we want to get from point to point, and the public roads are what they are. Some motorists are ignorant, but almost all are well intentioned. As a cyclist, my suggestion is never to forget that your best defense when riding is to always ride the best you know how, wherever you happen to be riding. Make it easy for your motoring friends, and remember that the jerks are notable because they both rare and stressful. Thanks, "cycler."

BTW, your blog is pretty cool!

Elegance Counts Too

During the course of the last couple of years, I've seen lots of stuff on the Internet about bicycle commuting and transportation. Some of it extolls urban transportation riding as the apex of bicycle culture, some of it sneers at "casual urban" cyclists. I've seen claims that cycling will cost you under 10 cents per mile, with corresponding large savings over automobile travel. On the other hand, I've suggested myself that cycle commuting isn't something you do for purposes of saving money at all. If cycle commuting is for saving money, trash bin bikes, run on a shoestring, using replacement parts from Wallyworld and thrift stores are the order of the day. Its what I'd run if I were trying to absolutely minimize outgo. A step up for those not wanting to deal with getting a relic back on the road are big box stores. It's what you can see any day of the week, chained up at the back of restaurants almost anywhere. However, even in a transportation bike, elegance counts.

Before you read any further, this post is a Steve A foray into "bike culture." As noted in that post, I tend toward bike culture stuff when I haven't been riding enough. Commuting is over for 2009.

Bike Transportation Secret
In truth, the ideal transportation bike is quite simple. It's the bike that will make you dream about riding it to work, or to the store, or to go work out at the gym. It's a bike you'll just go out to gaze on before you got to sleep, just to look at it one last time. For some, it's a traditional style touring bike, such as a Pashley. Sometimes their enthusiasm even makes me feel a bit tempted. For others, it's a modern bike, or a mountain bike. For a few, it's a Bakfiets or Xtracycle. For me, it's Frankenbike and Buddy, but Buddy's the serious transport bike I take when I need to do the miles to work daily, in darkness or light, in all weather (even though I'm just a fair weather cyclist at heart).

Background

I first started riding to work in Texas back in 2004 (I moved here in 2003), using my road bike. It was a 19 mile commute to Vought in Dallas, and I only did it a couple times of week, and only during the longer days of the year. In 2006, I changed work locations and then began riding to work occasionally to Haltom City, using mostly older bikes. Starting in 2008, I got more serious and began to consider what I really wanted for transport. KEEP IN MIND that my transport considered only what I needed to make the trek of well OVER 10 miles each day to work. Had I been going a mile or two, or five, the criteria would have resulted in a different choice.

My Ideal Transportation Bike - First Element

There are two cycling books that have most influenced my attitudes toward cycling. Effective Cycling is one that I've talked about in this blog before. When it comes to how to ride safely, I've never seen anything that would cause me to criticize the opinionated old coot that wrote it. I've never seen any serious criticism of him in this regard elsewhere, either.  But there's another cycling book that has been at least as influential on me. To this day, I read it, though much of its advice is laughable and hopelessly outdated. That book is The Complete Book of Bicycling by Eugene A Sloane, 1970 Edition. My wife also got a copy. We keep hers, which is autographed. Eugene Sloane passed away just last year - of causes unrelated to cycling (cycling IS safe and fun), at the age of 90. My favorite chapter is "So You Want to Buy a Bicycle!" It's a window into a different time, when bicycles were more primitive, but more elegant at the same time. It predates mountain bikes. It's why I still have a French bike in my garage that I bought new in 1971, though the paint is worn clear off the chainstays, the right rear dropout is bent, and it's too big for me. It's why I now have an old Falcon. It's why I have two sets of tubular rims. That book drilled into me the first element of a serious bike - drop handlebars. All my own bikes have them. I've ridden bikes with other handlebar types, and they're pleasant enough. I may even back off someday. But not yet. In this, Forester in Effective Cycling didn't help. Forester also said drop bars are IT. I think both these guys are wrong on this, but I'm like the Pearl Harbor survivor that can't bring himself to consider buying a Toyota. As it is, shallow drop bars DO work very well for how I ride. Buddy's got shallow drop bars.

My Ideal Transportation Bike - Second Element
Sloane's book also instilled an appreciation for a second element I want in a serious bike. That second element is relatively light weight. I've never wanted the very lightest. Such bikes make too many compromises for serious point-to-point riding. They don't accommodate fenders. They don't have proper wheel clearance. They won't take racks. Many of them compromise braking - or stability - or durability - or reliability. But the influence still has power. A kickstand is, to quote Sloane, "at least a pound of dead weight." None of my bikes have kickstands. I still have the one that came with my 1971 bike, but it hasn't been on a bike for 36 years. It's why I'm fitting "quick change" fenders to Buddy, a bike that has places to attach fenders permanently.

My Ideal Transportation Bike - Third Element

Now we depart from elements contained in the book influences. I've moved beyond the love of a lugged Reynolds 531 or Columbus frame, and Campagnolo components, to an appreciation for welded aluminum with SRAM or Shimano shifters (actually SRAM rules & Shimano drools). Sloane also lacked an appreciation for the utility of braze-ons and places to bolt stuff. He was a reflection of the time in which he wrote. Forester, on the other hand, wanted to take out a torch and start brazing stuff on personally. Recently, I asked my LBS about adding braze-ons to Frankenbike and they laughed at me (there is a shop that can do it in DFW, however). My third element is that the transport bike should have enough provisions to allow it to mutate easily. None of this having to sneak a rack aboard using klugey clamps or such. None of this having to velcro a water bottle holder to the frame. Any bike that can't accommodate fenders and a rack in the basic design need not apply. That rules out most of the road bikes built nowadays.

My Ideal Transportation Bike - Final Factors

Once one specifies drop bars, light weight, room for fenders and racks, there are a few other factors. Number one amongst these are brakes. I want brakes that are capable of throwing me over the handlebars in a torrential downpour. My bike in 1971 once took two blocks to stop when I was going down a hill in the rain. It's why I'd never ride a bike with steel rims on anything other than a nice sunny day. Number two is some sort of way to fix one's feet to the pedals - either toe clips or clipless pedals. This, of course, is something that can be accomplished with ANY bike. For long-range commuting, I think SPD pedals are ideal. Number three amongst these are a solid feel to the bike. I like a twitchy feel in a road bike. It's what they're about. But a transport vehicle should feel solid and steady. It inspires confidence and purpose in the commute. Number four amongst these is that the bike has to "call out" to me. THAT is a combination of a lot of stuff. All together, these factors add up to the elegance of the bike I'm considering.

My Ideal Transportation Bike - Candidates
When you add it all up, there were basically two bike styles that remained after the criteria were set up; Touring frames and Cyclocross. Both were designed to travel all sorts of terrain. Both considered weight without being obsessed by it. Both had brakes. REAL brakes. Touring bikes all had good places to bolt stuff and they tended more towards the steel I'd grown up with and always appreciated.

Wild Card
As it turned out, I was led towards my current approximation of an ideal, long distance transport bike entirely by accident. One of my coworkers had a Specialized Tricross. What's more, he locked it OUTSIDE in the bike rack I passed by daily when I went out for a walk at lunch. Over time, I noticed the serious brakes, and the rack mounts. None of this impressed me overmuch - I had Frankenbike and I wasn't looking for a new bike anyway. Until I heard vague rumblings of a work move.

Looking
I started looking at Tricross. Tricross seem, to me, overpriced for what you get. I wasn't about to pay $1300 for a clunky Tiagra bike. What's more, over time, I've lost enthusiasm for triple front derailleurs for general use. I could get as much out of Frankenbike at 1/10 the price. I didn't see much in the way of used ones. Entirely by chance, I ran across a used, late model Expert in mid January. The Expert not only had a better specification, including SRAM shifting gear, but it avoided the drab look of the lower end Tricrosses. And the upgraded wheels made me drool. They were, simply, elegant. Buddy was it. I rode Buddy to work the first time in February 2009. It's been great.

Even Love Has Warts

Ten months of commuting show Buddy isn't perfect, but it's not real far from it. Rather than extoll its virtues, I'll focus on where it falls short:

• Zertz Inserts - Despite what Buycycling Magazine may tell you, interrupting primary load paths with a hunk of translucent plastic isn't a road to paradise. I'd have to ride an equivalent bike without the zertz to know for sure, but I think Specialized Marketing won out over the engineers in the design. Trust me. I work on carbon stuff for a living. Carbon doesn't like making load go around corners like Specialized has done. If I ever need to replace the seatpost, I'll pick something without Zertz. I don't LIKE those popping noises I occasionally hear over rough roads.

• Rubber Doughnuts - Buddy came with little white plastic doughnuts over the rear brake cable. They would rapidly slide to the back of the cable, with the cable marring the paint. When I switched the cables to a conventional bike arrangement, I went to rubber doughnuts. They work better, but it's still not reliable. One disappeared when I was in bike class.
• Brake Pads - 3400 miles is a bit short for pad life in my book. Kool Stop pads might or might not last longer, but they're sweet in any event. Get the salmon color.

• Frame Stiffness - While Buddy feels rock solid on the road, I occasionally get rear brake rubbing at times that suggest the torsional stiffness of the rear is less than ideal. Buddy also shudders on occasion when travelling over heavy gravel, and then keeps going. It's a "solid shudder" if that makes any sense.
• Balance between cost and "perfect." - That 10 cents per mile is tough to achieve with a bike like Buddy. Buddy's about the most expensive bike with a chance of hitting that target. I think I'll get there.
• Mileage concerns - Buddy is the first bike I've ever owned that I felt any need to conserve mileage on to avoid premature wear. That's due to the cost - even though I bought used. You buy cheap and such things are of no concern.

That's about it. Specialized may be the "Pepsi" of the bike industry to Trek's "Coke," but Specialized has done a pretty darn good job with the Tricross, though if you go visit the Specialized website, you'll find it difficult to find. On the other had, something from Surly, Redline, or Masi, without the Zertz, and a little lighter, with maybe a light green frame color. Mountain Dew, so to speak. In the meantime, I'm going out to the sunroom to look at Buddy a bit...

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!

Bikes Make Second Rate Commuter Transport

The DFW Clean Air Coalition “Commuter Challenge” put the ability of bikes to reduce oil consumption into perspective against other private options. I picked the options to keep the math simple.

Consider the following options:

• Car, getting 20mpg, making a 20 mile round trip commute
• Four day work week (compressed schedule), same car as baseline
• Hybrid car getting 40mpg, making the same commute
• Telecommute – commuter travels to work in person once a week
• Bike, making the same 20 mile commute – ignore any extra oil used to generate the ride calories
• Carpool, with 3 people, getting that same 20mpg and making the same commute
• Vanpool, with 10 people, getting 10mpg and making that commute

Compared to the car, each saved the following fuel per baseline commute:

• Car – Baseline
• Compressed Schedule – 0.2 gallon
• Hybrid – 0.5 gallon
• Telecommute – 0.8 gallon
• Bike – 1 gallon
• Carpool – 2 gallons (took 2 extra people off the road)
• Vanpool – 8 gallons (took 9 extra people off the road)

Lesson?
For the clean air community, vanpools rock! Bikes are only good in comparison with other single occupancy vehicles. Public options, of course, depend on ridership and how people get to & from the public option. So cyclists, let’s not get all enamored about how wonderful we are. It’s a lot easier to get ten people signed up for a vanpool than to get 8 people to abandon their cars and cycle commute. Personally, however, I don’t think vanpools are as much fun – and those vanpools aren’t very practical for getting shopping done, nor for getting a hot coffee, savored at Sundance Square, not long after dawn on a sunny fall Saturday morning. THAT, my friends, is well worth being second rate…

Government Bicycle Lies

I use "tryparkingit.com" to log my commute miles. In a previous post, here, I talked about some of the other choices. Many of those are superior, but I LIKE tryparkingit. It's sort of like a classic Jaguar in that you KNOW it's unreliable and prone to unexpected breakdown, but you love it anyway.

Tryparkingit.com is a creature of "NCTCOG," a quasi-government entity. However, their site does get a little sporty with the truth on occasion, as this post describes.

First off, they pump up the "trips reduced" as shown in Item A. In actuality, as of that date, I'd logged 192 bicycle commutes on their site. I'm not exactly sure how they got the 214, other than the site used to give you credit for any day you didn't go to work - like due to vacation, holiday, or sickness. Now, they only give you extra credit if you skip work due to a "compressed work week," whatever that is.

Next, compare the two mileages in Item B. They don't match! What's more, my actual logged mileage on that date was 6108 miles which doesn't match EITHER of the summary numbers. What happens here is that they give you "extra credit" if you bring your lunch to work. I'm not sure how bringing my lunch to work on my bike makes me greener than eating at the cafeteria, but this IS government thinking at work.

Next, look at Item C and notice the gas savings. In this case, tryparkingit is pessimistic. The only way I'd get 21mpg in the Land Rover would be going down a hill with a stiff tailwind. 14 is more like it, which for the 6108 miles, comes out to more like 436 gallons saved before the "extra credit" stuff, or 584 gallons using government math.

NOW you get into real phony baloney with Item D. Tryparkingit uses AAA costs. Well, these only work if you GET RID of the vehicle since the durn things still cost money just to park in the driveway otherwise due to insurance and depreciation. The Land Rover's pretty much depreciated which reduces my savings, but my insurance costs are high per mile since I don't put that many miles on it. In reality, I figure I've saved about $2000, which just about matches the cost of "Buddy" and the various bike gewgaws I've purchased during that time.

Finally, you get to the last lie, in Item E. It's a similar sort of number to the gas savings. Lucky for me I weigh more than the average number, and ride faster as well. In my case, reality comes out closer to 350000 calories before you add the "extra credit." Good thing I've lost a couple of pounds lately or it'd mean that I'd have to ride to the moon and back to reach my ideal weight instead of merely around the world a couple of times.

There are other oddities on the site that don't show up in the picture. For example, PM Summer at Cycle*Dallas got irritated, here, by the way tryparkingit combined alternative commute modes - combining cycling with blade skating (yes, I know it's really in-line skating). When I complained about it to them, reproduced here, they asked me to be a transportation coordinator (without responding to my actual complaint). They also don't mention that the site is not heavily used. This year, on "Bike to Work Day," I represented 6.5% of logged bicycle commuting for the entire metroplex, all by myself. I'm not sure how they concluded that I rode my bike to work instead of blade skating in, but I figure they made a guess. And, perhaps you can explain to me how riding my bike to work after 10AM would reduce ozone formation by one molecule compared to riding it to work before 10AM.

Still, despite its warts, the site has easy Excel export and THAT lets me make all kinds of cool charts & graphs. And, isn't that one thing engineers live for? That plus I'm optimistic that they'll help me amortize "Buddy" down to that 10 cent per mile target cost a little quicker.

See, Big Oak, there was more to this tryparkingit than you might have thought, when you read the prior "results" post; here. So now get back to work and give us a little more about that luscious Tricross of yours. Wiggly lights are interesting, but more Tricross posts are needed to keep balance and harmony in the universe.

Seattle Bike Report

The good:
Lots of bike stores. Except for the California imports, motorists are mostly pretty mellow. Lots more bike racks than North Texas.

The bad:
Connectivity. More hazards from clueless types on bikes. Mandatory helmet laws.

The verdict:
Despite a well-intentioned, but poorly executed bike program, it's still practical to get around most places in the Northwest by bike. You just have to know the local turf if you would rather not deal with the expectation that you'll stay in your little "special" lane. Even Seattle doesn't have enough PC and money to completely escape reality.

Exclusive DFWPTP Interview - with Linda A, a transportational cyclist, encountered in Seattle.
DFWPTP: "What about those bike lanes? Are they any use at all?"
Linda A: "They're a really bad joke."
DFWPTP: "Then why do you ride in them?"
Linda A: "It's pretty hard not to!"
DFWPTP: "Why?"
....and so it went...

Meet "Buddy" - Transport Vehicle

Buddy's transport. A Specialized Tricross Expert, it's admittedly luxury transport, but transport all the same. That was the main purchase motivator. There is a secondary motivator that I'll test out when the season comes - Cyclocross. Just as in the case of sports cars, a bike ought to have a practical use and a "fun" one.

Buddy's name was adopted by the family when I concluded that locks were only needed if you were leaving the bike outside the store. I don't. Buddy accompanies me inside any stores I visit with it. At work, it parks behind my office door. I keep my heavy duty lock at work, just in case.

The tires were picked for their combination of comfort, low weight, puncture resistance, and low rolling resistance. Continental GP 4 Seasons in the 28c width. They're the widest folding road tires I know of, and they're holding up well. This may be the first time I wind up rotating tires on a bike. Typically, I carry two pumps (one a CO2), a spare tube, and a patch kit for commute duty. That stuff all fits in the fairly small seat bag.

It's got mounting for racks and fenders, should that be necessary. Right now, the commuting mode makes that unneeded weight. Our new joke at home is we need a spare tire cover for the Land Rover that has "Laundry Recovery Vehicle" printed on it.

Buddy gives up two minutes for the 20 mile run to work compared to the road bike. It's a joy to ride, and that, my friends, is the real major factor in making bicycle commuting work. Each of my bikes is a joy to ride, they're just joyful in different ways. Buddy IS a fast, long range commute bike.

At the time of this post, Buddy has about 1900 miles, accumulated since the beginning of February. I'm currently riding my road bike most of the time, since the days are long and I don't want to have to overhaul Buddy until after cross season. However, the days of the road bike commute are numbered. I had to fit my "be seen" lights on it this morning and, before you know it, it'll be dark enough at departure time that the skinny tire road bike will be relegated to recreational use until next June.

We've started down that long slow slide into Winter and ice storms. Enjoy the heat while you can. This is, after all, Texas.

"Just a Minute" Locking

Saturday, I took Frankenbike out for a little exercise. We went to Downtown Fort Worth with a little assist from the Trinity Railway Express, better known as TRE. I'll do posts in the future about TRE, and on my experiences trying to use bikes in combination with local transit.
















Anyway, to make a long story short, the train came, we hopped on (clean bikes are welcome on the TRE).









Before you knew it, we were at the Sundance Square Starbucks, home of other famous blog posts, and ready for the title demo at one of the unique Fort Worth "Star" bike racks. You'll note this one has attracted a bit of half-hearted graffiti. You'll also note that the city has found it necessary to label the things so we'll know what they are. They don't mention this in the link above. I notice Dallas doesn't have to label THEIR bike racks. Hmm.


Anyway, in this case, I was going to swing in to Starbucks for "just a minute" to pick up my coffee. Real coffee, none of that artsy fartsy stuff. Well most of you know that many bikes are stolen while left unlocked at such places for "just a minute." For your consideration (and probably criticism), see my "just a minute locking." Below, not the inferior job at left.







(click on picture at left or on one below for bigger view)




Here's why I think it makes sense:

• Lightweight lock fits in the seat bag, making sure it's always along
• Cable delays the thief while he goes back to car to get a pair of cable cutters
• Cable cleverly "protects" both the frame and the QR front wheel
• Nutted IG hub forces thief to get a wrench if he wants to steal the back wheel. Cable is too short to protect both wheels at once
• Bike value not much more than the cost of the lock. The REAL value here is in the back wheel and there's not a big market for 7 speed Nexus hubs

This is NOT a strategy to keep that bike secure for long, but it DOES work for - "just a minute." Anyway, when catching the train back to the Hurst Bell Station, I found out I could stay aboard the TRE, sweep clear over to Dallas and catch "A Taste of Dallas." Pretty cool - or it would have been had it not been rapidly approaching triple digit temperatures. Still, we did the family trip to "Taste of Dallas" later on via TRE. Full Monty Metroplex!

Frankenbike, Weekend Warrier

Frankenbike is an odd fish. It started out as a low-mid circa 1970 Falcon, complete with tubular tires and low end Campy components. Then it mutated. Currently featuring Shimano 7sp Nexus gearing, it features components from Belgium, China, England, Italy, Japan, Korea, and the United States. It also has different size wheels just to keep things from getting boring. Both tires do use the same size tube, however (I may be dumb but I'm not stupid!).

I've thought about a rack for Frankenbike, there's one out in the garage and it'd certainly be convenient for runs to the gym, but the Nexus drivetrain already weighs a ton & with a rack, there'd be little reason for me to give my wife's bike any exercise. Still, reading some of these other blogs, I may be seduced into yet another Frankenbike mutation. What do they say, wire is real?

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!