Cycling

Let the Biking Begin

Bill Sheldon — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:14:00 GMT

So it's a new year... and time to get working on getting back on my bike again. I managed some riding this past year which was good - but not nearly as much as I'd hoped. I've fallen about 2,400 miles off my target annual mileage... oh well, hopefully I'll hit or exceed my target this year - although in all honesty I think it'll be difficult to hit my target again this year.

On the plus side my light is working again, I was unable to ride to and from work for most of Dec. because when I pulled out my light it stopped working. I have a very nice Flamethrower from NiteRider (www.niterider.com). (The flamethrower was the 1st generation the current generation is the Flight: http://www.niterider.com/prod_flight.shtml) This light puts out more light then most car headlights - which is good because when I'm riding at night I want to be seen and this isn't a headlight that you can miss. Unfortunately on my first ride home this winter; when I fired it up - the LEDs powered up but each time I tried to get my main light to start it failed. I made it home, after all the 3 LED's do provide minimal light - but not an acceptable situation.

So I used the NiteRider website and gave them a call. Their service was well coordinated and they gave me a Return Maintenance Authorization (RMA) number to track my repair. So I sent them my light, at the height of the Christmas season... A couple days after FedEx showed my package had been delivered I gave them a call to check on the status. Note I didn't send them my battery because they charge $20 for each returned item (light, battery) and since my LED's worked, my taillight worked and my light was trying to fire up I felt the battery was solid. When I spoke to the maintenance rep he mentioned he was preparing to call me... the problem was a bad ballast and the light had been given some free maintenance beyond the ballast. So I paid for the light's bench test and parts.

I got it back a few days later and set up a test at home (no sense repeating my last ride). Well I fired up the light - and same results. Now I have no doubt that they tested my light before shipping it back to me so I called them back. Of note I didn't start screaming or looking to kill the phone guy, I just said hey - got my light but it still doesn't work. We talked a few minutes and we agreed I would send my light and battery back and they would waive the bench fee on the battery as long as it checked out (we all knew it would) and (still in the Christmas season) they put a rush on the work order.

A few days later I got my light and battery back - no charges, apparently something else related to the starter in the light or the light itself had failed (probably took a hit in shipping) and they had repaired my light and gotten it back to me in a matter of days. Overall although it did take two trips (for the FedEx guy) they did a great job getting my light back online (although I was on vacation by then).

Today I hooked up the light and rode into work - yes I had tested it previously. The goal is to get to ride in 3 days a week, and I'd ride tomorrow but it looks like the rain really will arrive tomorrow so I'll wait till next week to ride in again, but my thanks to the folks at NiteRider who did a great job with my light's repair and now I just need to get in a couple thousand miles...

Does Bob Roll Read My Blog?

Bill Sheldon — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:06:00 GMT

So I'm sitting there watching the tour again this evening (- yes "Nerd" is in the blog's title...) trying to catch the key words that I couldn't remember for the Fly to the Finish game that Versus, Bicycling, and Saab are hosting.

Up comes Bob Roll's (http://www.bobroll.com/) question of the night which essentially is: Will there ever be a Tour of America? As is noted on the show, while there are well supported tours of both Georgia and California - there isn't one of the entire US.

Now I'm going to paraphrase Bob here but his answer was "Yes when we run out of gas. Until then America has Nascar."... Cycling Motivation and Nascar - However, I like your answer Bob, and I have to agree...

BTW - It was a brutal day on Le Tour - not so much because the course was brutal but because two of the overall (vs. sprint, climbing etc.) favorites, both from team Astana, had major crashes. The first to Kloden didn't seem major but reports are he may have broken his coccyx (last bone in your spine) the second to Vinokourov looked brutal and left him with a truly nasty road rash but apparently he's also in the hospital being checked for broken bones. Note both men finished today - but the ride by Vino after his crash to pull within 1 minute 20 seconds was inspired - let's just say that both men showed more heart in 'playing' hurt then most US professional athletes (I know if my right hip as much like raw hamburger as Vino's; I'd be on my way to the hospital - not riding up a mountain at 20+ mph.)

To Patch or Not to Patch

Bill Sheldon — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:37:00 GMT

Every now and then it happens – you flat. More frequently on a road bike then a mountain bike, but it happens to both at some point. After a flat, should you patch the tube or throw it away?

As for preparation for the inevitable, well you should always carry two New tubes as spares. You should also have a ‘patch kit’ or more appropriately some ready to use preglued patches. These are in case you flat more than twice – yes I personally have flatted 3 times on more than one occasion on my road bike (although in one case I borrowed a tube from someone else rather than patch).

When you do flat you should always take your punctured tube with your or dispose properly of it.

Thus my first rule is after clearing my tire from any debris which is poking through the tire causing the flat is to use a new tube. Note that I specified “New” tubes earlier. Your spare tubes should never have been previously patched. If you are using a patched tube and you flat 300yds down the road you don’t know if your patch failed or if you left debris in the tire – with a new tube you can be confident that you didn’t clear the tire correctly (and apply the appropriate expletives while changing your tire AGAIN).

Once you get back to base/home you have a damaged tube in your pocket (or are you just happy to see me :-) Which brings me back to the question of should you trash or patch it?

Well my preference is to patch once. Only once, because each patch introduces another potential point of failure and so I limit myself to one patch on a given tube.

Having said that for what to do when riding where does patching fit in and why? Well the fact is that a patch introduces a new point of failure in your tire. No not the ability of the patch itself to withstand pressure, but the glue holding the patch down. Applying the patch on the road is risky because depending on your skill a large number of patches aren’t applied correctly to start with not to mention on the road it’s harder to tell if you’ve gotten the hole(s). That's why you carry two spares since

Thus for me the rule of patching is: to patch a tube and place it back on the bike at home. It doesn’t matter whether I’m swapping that good tube back out to be a spare again or if I’m replacing a worn tire with a new one. Along with this the goal is to patch in the evening allow the patch to hold overnight (showing it was a good patch) and then do a short ride and finally leave the patch in the sun/heat. I bring this up because I’ve repeatedly had new patches which seemed to hold, even to support me during a short ride to suddenly fail when my bike was parked in the sun. In some cases with more traditional patches I was able to re-inflate the tire and in the process the patch had gotten a better seal – in other cases especially with a self adhering patch, the patch was dead.

Thus I am willing to patch a tube for reuse locally and allow it to prove itself. However, I wouldn’t patch or install a patched tube if I was preparing a new tire for use as part of a long ride or an important ride where I didn’t want to risk a failed patch flat.

Cycling Motivation and Nascar

Bill Sheldon — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 23:04:00 GMT

It's been a while since I posted.... I have several items to comment on but I've been on vacation and more focused on setting up some updates related to the blog vs. adding content. So I wanted to quickly comment on the Tour de France (http://www.letour.fr/2007/TDF/LIVE/us/200/index.html). It started Saturday and one of (in my opinion) the advantages of living on the West Coast is that the live broadcast runs from ~5:30 AM till ~8:30 AM daily (http://www.versus.com/tdf/article/view/758/?ss=tv&tf=Body.tpl). The result is I can wake up around 6 tune in the tour and see the results of that days stage before starting my day.

The tour itself is great motivation to get out and ride. Watching these guys do 100+ miles a day for 3 weeks is inspiring. I had a great Mountain Bike ride last week I'll talk about in a later post but there is nothing like a morning or afternoon out on the roadie. This morning's race (stage 2) also brought home how the Tour is like a more environmentally friendly version of Nascar. (note I'm not claiming the tour IS environmentally friendly - as you watch riders toss plastic bottles to the side of the road and consider the chase vehicles etc... )

both involve a "man" piloting a machine (Nascar has women drivers)
both races are on a paved (or other road) surface
both involve corporate sponsors with their name on every available surface
both are more exciting (to the average TV viewer) when there is a pile-up/wreck (http://community.active.com/blogs/MartinDugard/2007/07/09/a-lot-of-tension)
both seemingly individual sports have a team aspect that changes the underlying dynamics
both have issues with particpants 'juicing' there 'engine' - the body (steriods) in cycling, the car and it's combustion engine in Nascar
both have fans that line the course drinking copius amounts of adult beverages

Now obviously there are differences for example the Tour's course takes you through most of France over the course of a month with beautiful scenary and Nascar uses loops and only races on weekends; but in general aside from the fact that the Tour doesn't burn copius amounts of fuel to power it's vehicles the dynamics of the event are somewhat the same. There are of course many more intracacies to the Tour (and bicycle racing in general) than (in my opinion) to Nascar but that's beyond the scope of this musing. Oh and just like in Taledega Nights - if you aren't first, you're last.

Tour de Cure 2007 results

Bill Sheldon — Sun, 13 May 2007 20:29:00 GMT

The ride was yesterday. Thankfully it was a beautiful day in the low 70's. The ride left from Cuyamaca College. It took me till a little after 12, with 3 rest stops, 1 stop to aid another cyclist and later a flat tire of my own. Overall my average speed was 13.1 mph which was passable. I was once again able to show the value of riding a triple (haven't tried one of the new compact doubles). To put it in comparison my 13.1 average speed was .8 mph slower then I did in 2005, when it was in the 90's and there were issues with heat. But that takes care of next year and next year (unless they move the location) I'll just have to do better.

BTW, the best part of the ride actually came after I finished. I ran into someone who I had suggested try out the ride. He had done the 30 mile route and had a great time.

Cycling Update

Bill Sheldon — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:44:00 GMT

Since this afternoon has become blog update I thought I'd relate and record a few note from my biking ride this weekend. After a mountain bike ride on Thursday with Kevin, Friday was Roadie to and from work with a couple extra miles on the way home. Then Saturday it was time to return to the scene of the crime.

When I first got my road bike I also got a free biking mag, one of those which sits near the door of your local bike shop for free. In it was a route through North San Diego County that took you from Oceanside into Fallbrook and back. Since I didn't know where else to ride and was training for the Tour de Cure of 42 miles I decided to try out this 32 mile ride. Well it kicked my butt - it went up this little road called Sleeping Indian. Let's just say that in terms of climbs this road should be renamed Ambush Indian because after you make it to the top you want to know if someone got the name of the Indian who just kicked your butt. When I first started riding I couldn't make it up this climb with out stopping (two stops the first couple times, then I got it down to one until I finally made it.)

Most everyone familiar with riding in North San Diego County is familiar with the Torrey Pines climb along the coast. To compare - riding the coast the climb up the outer (shore side which is steeper) of Torrey Pines is 331 Feet of elevation gain spread across 8/10ths of a mile. This is considered one of the more difficult climbs in the county for a recreational rider. Sleeping Indian has a section within it which involves 330 Feet of elevation gain spread across 7/10ths of a mile, a steeper climb for what is essentially the same elevation gain. More importantly however, that is only part of the Sleeping Indian climb, overall Sleeping Indian climbs to the base of that steep section and has additional climbing after that section which brings your total elevation gain to somewhere in excess of 750 Feet.

So back to my Saturday route. After I first rode that original route a couple times, and got a second rider for a few rides we found a problem in that route required riding along the Rt. 76 Highway. Not the safest of trips we eventually stopped riding this route. Fortunately however, as my cycling experience continued I learned other routes and have been able to work in a route which takes me from home up this climb and back without needing to ride along the shoulder of a two lane highway. Thus Sleeping Indian is my fitness test, and so I headed out to put myself to the test.

The good news is I made it up without needing to stop - the bad news is that it was way closer then it should have been. It's one of those things where had it not been a cool day with a nice breeze I probably would have needed to stop. My heart rate was pounding up at 180 bpm and I was struggling forward at a full 3.6 mph. It wasn't pretty but now I know that I can make it through the upcoming Tour de Cure ride and how much further I have to go in getting back into shape. Overall I did the ~33 miles in just under 2 and a half hours riding time or 2 and three-quarters elapsed time with an average speed of 13.8 mph. The route includes over 3,300 feet of elevation gain over the course of the 33 miles, since Sleeping Indian isn't the only large climb on the route. Other noteworthy items from the ride include the fact that I hit 40+ mph on three different downhill sections and had a max speed of 44.9 mph.

This weekend I'm hoping to go more for distance and looking to head down the coast to Torrey Pines and return. It'll probably be 40+ miles with maybe 2,500 feet of elevation gain...

Back in the Saddle... again

Bill Sheldon — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:44:00 GMT

So with the arrival of Billy, my operation and work related activities to close out the second half of last year my biking has been almost non-existant. While I normally like to get around 2000 miles a year in, last year I got in ~700 - which is sad and not healthy. So it's time to start getting serious for this year, got my bike tuned up and a new chain and brake pads. I'm finishing up my work for Professional VB.NET 3.0 any day now and am starting to ride to and from work (a mere 8 miles each way). Of course as part of getting serious again there is that little concept of goals and I have mine. For starters although I took off last year for the birth of my son, I'll be back at the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure ride.

Consider this an open invite to join me on either this ride or the Encinitas ride I describe below it.

The San Diego Tour de Cure is May 12th this year, leaving from Cuyamaca College in East San Diego County. This ride is 10, 20, 30, 42 or 64 miles depending on the route you select. The longer 42 and 64 mile, routes involves some significant climbing up into the hills of East San Diego County. I'll be doing the metric century (64 miles ~100Kilometers) version of the ride again. It is a fund raising ride for the American Diabetes Association and my fund raising site is here: Click here to visit my Tour de Cure page.

for more information about the San Diego event you can go here: http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=4403

Back when I was first diagnosed with diabetes this ride was the both the reason I bought a road bike (in addition to my mountain bike) and the reason I upgraded that bike to have a triple front chain ring. As described on their site the ride is challenging. Given that I've regressed almost to the point where I was when I bought my bike I have my work cut out for me getting ready for this years ride.

In addition to that ride, this will be the inagural year for another ride here in San Diego County. The Encinitas Sports and Fitness Festival is launching a San Diego Century ride. The even has three ride lengths: 35, 72 and 105 miles that go through a portion of North San Diego County. This ride is scheduled for May 19th of this year and is a fund raiser for the Challenged Athletes Association.

More information on the event is here: http://www.encinitasrace.com/sdc/

The cost for the century ride is $50 on Active.com but I haven't decided if I want to take on the century ride for this event. I've done century rides in the past, and even difficult rides as this one looks to be. However the route that has been posted concerns me. Specifically it looks like you put in about 60 miles on a hilly course and then need to climb up into Ramona from just south of Poway. Thus the major climb occurs three/fifths of the way into the ride which is a challenge. Worse however is that this will probably hit between 11AM and 1PM for me (depending on start time and speed) and that means at the height of the day climbing during the heat of the day. I have to see if I am really willing to take this on so I'm going to hold off registering for this ride.

Bill finishing the Tour de Poway century ride....

As for Fall - well I'll be looking for another century ride - Poway at a minimum hopefully, but more importantly I'll be looking to climb Palomar Mountain again. I want to once again make it up without needing to stop during the 12 mile climb.

Feel free to join me for a ride.

Another Area May be Banned to Mountain Bikers

Bill Sheldon — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:04:00 GMT

One of the IK team's favorite riding areas 'Flightline' is now set to be closed to Mountain Bikers. Over the past few years I've blogged about our many adventures in Flightline - everything from timing our circuit to Kevin's near miraculous dive into the stream when he fell from one of the bridges.

Over time I talked about how we lost a big portion of Flightline to a new road extension and new houses. Well apparently part of the deal for getting permission to develop such a large section of Flightline was to ensure no one could get to the remainder in the future. Of course this has left many people upset so they've started a campaign to try and save Flightline's current status as a local area where people can get out into the undeveloped areas. The web site and a petition are available here:

Rattlesnake are out...

Bill Sheldon — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 22:58:00 GMT

For those who were out with us Thursday sorry in the delay in this post. Tim M., Kevin, Matthew and I rode through Calavera after work on Thursday. But the big news is that we ran into not one but two Rattlesnakes on the ride.

The first one was on the spine. Kevin and I rode past it, but Tim M. who was doing some 'pushing' on his bike heard it rattling and as you can see it was coiled... so he quickly got out of the way.

The rattlesnake is that dark brown blob you see slightly above center in the image above. This was the closer of my two photos, but of course the thing is, in this case you don't get close to the snake because you are dealing with the business end. Thus while I held my phone out and pointed I wasn't getting within 10 feet. We had to pull Tim M's bike away from the area since as you can see in the image below the trail is litterally alongside where the snake was.

This is most of the way up on the spine and by the time Kevin and I reached this point the blood was pounding in our ears and we were pedalling hard to keep moving through the obstacles. Plus Tim M was at least 25 seconds behind me and so the snake just hadn't gotten there yet (that's our story and we're sticking to it :-)

The second rattler was found by Kevin while the rest of us were looking at rattler #1. This was up past the top of the Spine off on a closed trail. Kevin decided to explore that trail and ran into the friend below. You'll note this image is a little better, that's because I was willing to work with the rattle end of the snake as opposed to the business end and get a little (but not much) closer.

Now believe it or not these are the first rattlers we've seen this year. On the other hand it does make me 4 for 4, that is 4 years mountain biking and 4 years of running into at least one snake every year...

End of Season Mountain Bike Goal for IK Riders

Bill Sheldon — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 23:47:00 GMT

The equivalent of the Roadie climb up Mount Palomar - plan to be there:

http://www.mountainbikebill.com/NateHarrisonGrade.htm