Sharrows

Sharrows are those chevron shapes you see on streets sometimes that indicate that car drivers should be ready for bikes in the lane. It's an explicit direction to cars to share the lane. It's a feature I like, although there is a debatable downside since drivers may assume that the absence of sharrows means bikes should not be present. The most prominent example in my neck of the woods is on Dean Keeton St.


My attention was recently directed to a study (an actual! scientific! study - find it here) showing the benefits of installing sharrows, especially in reducing the risk of one of my greatest fears: dooring. Dooring is when a parallel-parked driver opens their door in front of a biker in the "door zone" who is then forced to choose, in a split second, between attempting to stop, hitting the door, or swerving into the lane (there may or may not be a car there, and there's probably not time to check). It's definitely a great way to get the heart pumping and circulate adrenaline.

The best way to avoid being doored is to ride outside the door zone. If you have to ride to the side, take the lane early when there are parallel-parked cars, and watch for tell-tales on parked cars. Brake lights switching off or interior lights turning on are a good sign that the driver-side door is about to open. I also have a habit of looking in the side-view mirror to see whether there is a person in the driver seat. I never assume that person sees me and slow down or give a wide berth in case the door opens.

When a sharrow is installed, a bike rider can have more confidence riding in the lane outside the door zone, and many of these things are not an issue.

Be safe, ride hard.

Where I've been

In case anyone's been wondering why there hasn't been a post in 15 months, here's what happened. I got real busy working on this:

Woo hoo!

Then we went to Mexico to celebrate.

Then I got real busy being a post-doc, still at UT.

Back when I used to blog regularly, it seems I generated most interest on this blog by posting about my Dynamic Crosstown and about bike commuting in Austin, so here's an update:

I still commute almost every day on a bike. My back-and-forths take me about 80-100 km each week. After three years on my Crosstown 7, I've racked up almost 13,000 km (8000 mi). It's still holding together nicely, although I think I'm going to need to replace the shifter and cables and give the rear axle a good cleaning to make the shifting a little more precise. Shifting has been finicky lately. Also, the cranks are a little creaky. They probably need to be greased and tightened. Overall, though, no major complaints.

During the summer, I used the new Capitol Metro Red Line commuter train, because sometimes, it's just too hot to go both ways.

If you're still reading, post a comment to say hi.

Cheers!

Safe Passing Law SB488

Our dear governor, Rick Perry, recently vetoed a bunch of bills. Some, like the one allowing the state to take kids from homes for interviews away from their parents, I was glad to see. Others, however, we not OK. I'm speaking in particular of SB488, which would have established rules to protect bikes and other non-car users of roadways. Of particular interest in this bill was a clause establishing a safe passing distance of 3ft. Making this into a law would give bikers some (currently lacking) specific legal recourse in the case of side-swipes, mirror hits, right-hook crashes, and eventually increase biker safety in the state of Texas. Governor Perry didn't want to create another class of protected citizens (classic conservative response) and vetoed it, despite overwhelming congressional and public support. I often side with the conservative political point of view, but not this time. Our laws and culture are biased toward cars on the roads and the legal system can be hostile to bicyclists.

So what can you do? You can go sign the petition at Bike Texas like I did, and make sure that the issue doesn't go away. Even if you don't commute or recreationally ride a bike, sign it anyway. It'll take less than 2 minutes, max.

Thanks.

Commuter Tires

By request (I'd say popular demand, but that's a bit pretentious, and there was only one request) I'd like to say a few words about tires for commuter bikes.

I used to work for the research and development branch of Michelin North America, and now I have a  fondness for tires. I cannot help but notice them on cars (my wife used to laugh about this, now she just rolls her eyes and nods politely), and I am a firm believer in paying for quality.

If you've read this blog before, you probably know that I devote many of my posts to describing my experiences with my Dynamic drive-shaft bicycle. If you've read my reviews of that bike, you may know that I was disappointed with the quality of the tires that they supplied with it. In particular, because I have fenders and because removing the rear tire is less than convenient, the puncture resistance of those tires was unacceptable. I was having to repair a flat on at least a weekly basis.

That led me to one of the best $30 purchases I've made for my bike. I visited my LBS (Clown Dog Bikes) and requested Kevlar commuter tires, and the guy there handed me a pair of CST Selecta Kevlar tires. These tires have a steel bead, a Kevlar carcass (forgive the tire-nerd lingo, that's the weave inside the rubber that provides the strength and shape for the tire), and a reflective strip in the sidewall. There is a very light, directional tread pattern, which for a road bike doesn't serve a whole lot of purpose. The tread pattern is designed in such a way that it does not induce a vibration or noise during rolling (as a mountain bike tread would do, for instance) and may provide some help with water evacuation (although in my experience with tire design, the swoopy directional patterns tend to be more marketing hooplah than functional features).

What's to say about a bike tire? Well, in 6000km, I have had to patch my inner tube precisely two times: once because of bad rim tape, and the other time because of a nasty sharp nail that could have pierced plate armor. Note that when I ride my wife's bike (to which I retired the original tires provided by Dynamic), flats occur on about a weekly basis, more or less, over the same route. The Kevlar works.

What else? The reflective strip, after two winters' worth of riding through dirty sandy black road water, is still visible in my car's headlights (and this camera's flash). There is at present no sign of that strip separating or coming out of the sidewall.

Last of all, the tread. I see only modest signs of chunking. There is still plenty of tread depth left. The photo above is of the front tire, which spent 5000km at the more aggressive rear axle. I'm guessing these are only about halfway through their life on this bike. I ride moderately aggressively and with a heavy backpack.

Parking

I was reminded today one of the big reasons why I commute by bike: parking. Today I am picking up my wife from the airport and had to drive to school so I can leave straight from here. I thought that I would just suck it up and pay a few bucks for parking in the garage so that I wouldn't have to hunt for a spot. The sign at the garage stated that times greater than 2-1/2 hours cost $10, so being the cheap grad student that I am, I pulled out and went hunting. After some extended searching, I found a spot about 6 blocks away from my building and squeezed my minivan into a tight parallel parking spot.
Some of you who do this every day may be rolling your eyes at my complaining, but how can you get used to this? Call me spoiled rotten, but I love passing long lines at red lights and stop signs, and I love even more rolling right up to my building without having to hunt for a spot.
And on that note, have you ever stopped to notice how much urban space is devoted to parking? Take a few minutes and imagine yourself as an alien visiting earth for the first time and trying understand why our cities are the way they are. You might be tempted to think that growing cars is a major agricultural activity by the devoted to the Mighty Automobile.

6000 km

Today the odometer on my Crosstown 7 flipped 6000 km. My average speed over the life of the bike (342 hrs) is 17.5 km/hr, or 11 mi/hr. I'm the first to admit that I'm not the next Lance Armstrong, but remember that number includes all the time I walk the bike or go slowly accompanying a daughter on a ride up the street and back. I started riding it in August of 2007, so that's an average of 315 km/month over 19 months. Since my commute is about 20 km/day, that means I've been able to ride almost 4/5 days. (Some days are partial commutes when I pick up Ian at Tae Kwon Do and ride the bus home with him.)

Now that I'm back on the bike after the recent repairs, it's nice to be riding consistently every day. This morning was rainy and wet, but I was still able to pull my daughters to school in their bike trailer without rooster tails or chain cleanup. Fenders are a must on a commuter, and have I mentioned before that the drive shaft is nice for not requiring a lot of messy maintenance? This was the first rain in a long time, so the water on the road was really dirty and oily. Yuck! There's more on tap over the next few days, but I don't really mind. It's nice to be out in the weather, whatever it is.

Back in the Saddle

I promised to upload some photos of my restored Dynamic Crosstown 7. (Shhh, I'm using a lab camera to take and post these while our own camera goes in for warranty repair.) So here they are. Note: I saw a little video blurb called BrightBike about putting reflective tape on your bike and decided to get visible. In addition to adding to the cheese factor and increasing visibility, the white tape on the top tube covers up and inappropriate "Tempo" logo. This bike is not the Tempo model but uses the Tempo frame, apparently.

When I went to go buy the reflective tape, I brought Caroline with me, and she got into her head that she needed a new bike helmet and that I was going to get her one at the hardware store. I did some fast thinking and convinced her to accept her own $2.50 package of reflective tape instead. Of course she chose the read and white candy stripe pattern, some of which ended up as decoration on her helmet and some of which ended up adorning the drive shaft cover on my bike. (And yes, that's a spare pair of socks I keep at my desk that you see. I didn't notice it in the photo before.)

Eliza came out with me while I was working on the bike. She, my Little Helper, wanted to participate, so I set her to cleaning the spokes and hub. Everything's nice and shiny now and it looks more or less brand new.

I had mentioned previously that I was having trouble with the shifting. A new cable and sheath and a good clean-out of the rear hub fixed that problem. I had a little bit of worry when I noticed that the gears were grinding during my first commute on the new frame. That turned out to be a simple error on my part of not sufficiently tightening the right-side axle nut on the rear hub. It was allowing the bevel gears to get out of alignment and grind. It was very easily fixed.
I'm happy to be back in the saddle again.

Framed!

The frame arrived this evening. Unfortunately (arghhhh!) my camera has a "lens error" and won't focus now. We have lost more cameras to lens errors. Bummer, because I wanted to document the rebuild with photos. Oh well... Maybe I'll just nab a stock photo:

I'm surprised by how light the frame is. Total shipping weight including the box and packaging was 6 lbs. It's nice and shiny and new and looks just like the old one with two small exceptions. First is a "Tempo" decal which tells me that the frame is common with the Tempo model. OK. The second is another small lug of some sort on the seat stay just above where the brake mounts are.

Dynamic, per my request, sent the frame with the steer-tube bearings pressed into place already, so the only other tricky thing I have to do is press out the left-side bottom bracket fitting. I'm looking forward to getting going on it tomorrow when I get home. It will be nice to be back on my regular commuter.

The Magic Which Lies Outside

I've started reading a book called Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places. The author, John Stilgoe, gives voice to something I've never been able to articulate but which speaks to me love of being outdoors. Let me quote for you:

Get out now, Not just outside, but beyond the trap of the programmed electronic age so gently closing around so many people at the end of our centruy. G outside, move deliberately, then relax, slow down, look around. Do not jog. Do not run. Forget about blood pressure and arthritis, cardiovascular rejuvenation and weight reduction. Instead pay attention to everything that abuts the rural road, the city street, the suburban boulevard. Walk. Stroll. Saunter. Ride a bike, and coast along a lot. Explore.

With long explanations about how bicycles and shoes are the perfect exploration vehicles and how cars insulate and disconnect us from our environment, he goes through and describes how to explore the built landscape. This is not a but about nature, but about the history of human impact on nature which is hidden in plain sight all around us. I am about half way through the second chapter, and we're discussing the rights of way associated with railroads and electric lines.

It's amazing how you can see the impact all around once you have the right mindset and know what to look for. For instance, I have noticed things about the power lines in the neighborhoods that I drive through. In my neighborhood Allandale, all of the power lines run between the back fences of the houses, and the blocks are long and thin. As a consequence, the trees along the street (all placed 15 ft back from the road, so neatly you can sight along them) do not have to be trimmed. South of Allandale Rd in the Rosedale neighborhood, however, it's more patchwork, and in many places, power lines are strung along the fronts of houses, thus producing all sorts of grotesque shapes in the trees where the utilities have come in to hack them back. Although I'm sure Austin Energy prefers the easy access of street-accessible lines, it sure makes for ugly trees.

There are chapters to come on mail, strip malls, highways, main streets, dead ends, and more. I'm looking forward to developing some skill at exploring the magic which lies outside. Maybe some days I'll take some more time on my ride to or from work and explore a little. I look forward to sharing with you and inspiring a little exploration of your own.

Commuter Tires

Yesterday, I dusted off my wife's Raleigh hybrid bike to ride it in to work since my regular commuter has a broken frame. I enjoyed the change of feel and posture on the ride in and was starting to think this might not be so bad after all. Then on the ride home that all changed. After picking up Ian at his Tae Kwon Do class and attaching the tagalong trailer, we started our 3-mile ride home. Not far into the ride, we got a flat.

Of course, I had not switched my seat bag and tool kit over to the Raleigh, so we were stuck (literally) out in the cold. Fortunately, our route lies close to the bus route, so we walked a block over to the bus stop. Fortunately, the bus is on a 20-min frequency, and was supposed to have been made more frequent by the addition of several evening buses. Unfortunately, that is just a wild dream, and we waited for more than 45 minutes with no bus until my dear sweet wife finally came and picked us up. At least we got to have some father-son heart to heart time.

Three things went wrong. (1) I switched to a bike that did not have Kevlar tires. My regular bike has Kevlar tires, and in a year and a half of riding with them, I have gotten exactly one flat. On the first day with these other cheap tires, I'm dead on the roadside. (2) I did not pack the tool kit, which would have allowed me to make a roadside repair. I've gotten out of the mindset of needing it because I almost never do. (3) I had faith in the public transportation system. In principle, I'm a big believer in public transit, but Austin's Capital Metro has just not got it together with the P.M. buses. Nearly every time I've tried to take one in the afternoon or evening, I end up with a long (40-45 minute) wait.

Moral of the story. Be prepared!

The downside of aluminum frames

It's time for an update on my Crosstown 7 (see all the articles here). This is a shaft-driven bike from Dynamic Bicycles, most similar to the currently available Crossroad 8. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the bottom bracket was starting to move side to side more than usual, and I thought that was probably not a good sign and that it would suffer a fatigue failure. Well, today, as I was riding home, I noticed the frame get loose and start to creak. When I stopped to look it over, I noticed a nice big ugly crack where the seat tube meets the bottom bracket. That's not supposed to happen. Unfortunately it's an inevitable consequence of aluminum butt-welded frames, and I think that the design of the bottom bracket on this shaft driven bike may have amplified the stress or strain in that area. Since purchasing the bike in August 2007, I have put 5900 km (3670 miles) on the bike. It's the 22" frame, and I'm a heavy guy (~215 lbs) and carry a heavy (~15 lb) back pack on the book rack, and I tend to have more of a stoking rather than a spinning pedal style, so it's safe to say that I'm a heavy user, but not unusually so.

When I got home today, the first thing I did was to locate my warranty and confirm that there is a lifetime guarantee on the frame. I called up Dynamic and told them what happened, and I was very pleased to hear and immediate "Man, I'm so sorry that happened to you. We'll get a new frame shipped out to you right away." We went over the details of what I need, including agreeing to how much I would need to put together, and was I able to do the things, and did I have the right tools, etc. The attitude I got was 'what can we do to make this right for you as quickly as possible?' and I have to say that I appreciated that. I've had some very poor customer service experiences before, but not with Dynamic. Others have complained about them, but it's just not been my experience, I've always found them to be friendly and helpful.

I'll post again when the new frame arrives, and maybe I'll document the repairs that are necessary.

In the mean time, keep on biking, and click on over to support my friend Margo in her New Year's resolution to start biking to work again. Leave supportive comments, and ask her to blog about the very funny story of when we rode home together one time...

How is a Man Like a Peach Tree?

I recently read about peach trees that they need a certain amount of cooling in order to be productive. That is, if they don't spend a minimum number of days below a certain temperature, then their fruiting is limited. I wonder whether there could be a hormonal or other chemical basis for a similar response in humans...

This morning, for example, I awoke to a dreary drizzly day, with temps in the 40's F. I experienced a brief struggle between the desire to ride in on my bike and to ride to the bus stop and enjoy reading a book on a nice warm dry ride. I was starting to express this to my wife and had got as far as saying that I was thinking of riding to the bus stop when she interrupted (innocently, I'm sure) to say what a great idea that was. I had, after all, mentioned more than one how drizzly and cold it was outside.

Then the oddest thing happened, at the top of my street, where I turn left for the bus stop and right to ride all the way in, the whole struggle came back to life and the desire to ride through the invigorating weather bubbled up inside, and before I knew any better, I was accelerating down Daugherty, to the right. I arrived at school slightly damp, but quite recharged. It's as if I need to be cold in the winter. If I don't get chilled down enough days, then the endless heat of summer becomes oppressive and unbearable.

Does that make any sense? Am I completely crazy? Is there possibly any physiological basis for this?

And just in case anyone's paying attention, I've put about 5700km on the Dynamic Crosstown 7 now. It's still doing well with no major problems. The shifter has lost a little precision, and I have a little trouble downshifting into 1st. I don't know whether the indexes in the shifter are wearing out a little or maybe the shifter cable is dirty. I just can't get it quite right with the adjuster barrel. At some point it will become irritating enough for me to take it all apart and clean it out, but for now it's not that big a deal.

Also, I think it's always done this, but the other day I noticed that the bottom bracket does deflect quite a bit to the left on a right-side down stroke. Not so with the left-side. Hmmm. No problems yet, but I wonder whether this will turn into a fatigue failure at some point.

Change.org

Obama has set up a website (www.change.org) for people to write in to propose ideas in the new administration. I've posted a link on the left for you all to click on to promote cycling infrastructure as part of his new economic stimulus package. Give it a whirl. You actually vote by clicking on the vote count button on the page that this links to.

Cold cold cold

Yesterday was balmy and humid, in the mid 70's for most of the day. Then in the Texas tradition of unpredictability, the weather turned. In a matter of hours, the temperature dropped 40°, and it began to snow big fat wet snowflakes. That, in Austin, is a newsworthy event.

The snow, of course, did not stick to anything other than a few car tops and house roofs, and it was all gone not long after the sun came up, but we take what we can get.

It's amazing, though, how quickly I forget what it's like to be cold on the bike. I rode in today, like every day, and became reacquainted with that unique and uncomfortable feeling of being cold and hot at the same time. My clothing consists of an undershirt, a long sleeved cotton henly-style shirt, a felted wool pullover (by Swandri), and a wind-breaker shell that I can zip up and down to control wind exposure. In addition, I wear thick wool socks in my biking shoes, full fingered gloves, and a custom-knit wool cap with ear flaps that goes under my bike helmet. This getup is the result of many winters' worth of refinement; in particular, it was the Boston winters that truly forged my winter biking style. While I don't stop to admire myself in the mirror, but I've been told I'm quite a sight to see...

It takes a little while to get used to it again, though, and this morning was no exception. With a stiff headwind blowing 35° air at my nose, I quickly became reacquainted with the cold-nose, cold-finger, warm core phenomenon. It usually takes about 5-7 minutes of painful effort to get my body heat up until I'm comfortable, and during the warmup there's the terrible tradeoff between riding fast to warm up and getting chilled by the wind at higher speeds. The best way to warm up, really is a hill, where effort is high and speeds are low...

...which brings me to a funny thing. I've long noticed that biking vigorously moves the blood to concentration becomes more challenging. My wife can attest to this since I can't remember anything she tells me when I get home until I've had a moment or two to wind down. So, I've noticed on cool days that it seems like there is a specific place (Rosedale Elementary, if you happen to live in Austin and know where that is) where the air gets warmer on my ride in to campus. I have always attributed this to the heat island effect and to the quirks of local geography. Today, as I was pondering body heat and the best way to warm up, I finally realized that this is not the case at all, and that the air probably does not get warmer at all. The truth is that Rosedale Elementary is at the top of a killer hill, and that I'm warmer at the top, not the air around me... With all the blood in my legs, this has been hard to realize, but I'm sure that's it. It was certainly the case today, when the ride became tolerable at the top of that hill, and I even started to sweat a little in spite of my frozen nose and pinkies.

I'm happy for the cold weather, and I will soak it in and store it up for the summer months that are coming all too soon.

Two Little Biking Rants

One for the cars:

Why do cars feel the need to accelerate and swerve to get in front of me at a stop light or stop sign!!!?? We're both going to stop anyway, and I'm probably going to pass you on your right anyway. If you don't leave me room to pass, then that's just really rude, and if you do leave me room, what's the point?

And one for the bikers:

Why not stop at stop signs? Especially when there are cars two deep in each direction, when you blow through without a care in the world, it disrupts the turn-taking and does all bike commuters a big disfavor by pissing off the drivers. I'm sympathetic to blowing stop signs on empty residential streets if you at least make a motion of slowing down, but out in the busy-traffic public? Come on!

Yeesh!

Biking Pork

I read here about a piece of pork that got into this $700b bailout bill. The pork is a bill which offers corporations a $20/commuter/month tax credit per cycling employee. While I agree in principle with the result, I have to say I'm not impressed that a senator switched his support of the bailout because of this earmark. Some might call this compromise in action, but I tend to see it as a selfish hold-out for a pet interest. Can I get an Amen, anyone?

Here's the relevant snippet of H.R. 1424  (in full here):

"To provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy... (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate)"

...

SEC. 211. TRANSPORTATION FRINGE BENEFIT TO BICYCLE COMMUTERS.

(a) In General- Paragraph (1) of section 132(f) is amended by adding at the end the following:
`(D) Any qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement.'.
(b) Limitation on Exclusion- Paragraph (2) of section 132(f) is amended by striking `and' at the end of subparagraph (A), by striking the period at the end of subparagraph (B) and inserting `, and', and by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
`(C) the applicable annual limitation in the case of any qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement.'.
(c) Definitions- Paragraph (5) of section 132(f) is amended by adding at the end the following:
`(F) DEFINITIONS RELATED TO BICYCLE COMMUTING REIMBURSEMENT-
`(i) QUALIFIED BICYCLE COMMUTING REIMBURSEMENT- The term `qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement' means, with respect to any calendar year, any employer reimbursement during the 15-month period beginning with the first day of such calendar year for reasonable expenses incurred by the employee during such calendar year for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee's residence and place of employment.
`(ii) APPLICABLE ANNUAL LIMITATION- The term `applicable annual limitation' means, with respect to any employee for any calendar year, the product of $20 multiplied by the number of qualified bicycle commuting months during such year.
`(iii) QUALIFIED BICYCLE COMMUTING MONTH- The term `qualified bicycle commuting month' means, with respect to any employee, any month during which such employee--
`(I) regularly uses the bicycle for a substantial portion of the travel between the employee's residence and place of employment, and
`(II) does not receive any benefit described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph (1).'.
(d) Constructive Receipt of Benefit- Paragraph (4) of section 132(f) is amended by inserting `(other than a qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement)' after `qualified transportation fringe'.
(e) Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2008.

Try as I might, I could not locate the section 132(f) referred to in this final copy. I suppose that's why they hire full time staff, to sort through the tangled wording of such bills. Anyway, shouldn't a bill to provide a tax incentive for bicycle commuting be voted on as a bill to promote bicycle commuting? Here's a short list of some of the other gems tucked away into this one:

• renewable energy credits
• tax credit for fuels used by the steel industry
• clean coal technology investment credit
• CO2 sequestration tax credit
• biofuels tax credits
• plug-in electric vehicle credit
• tax deduction for energy efficient buildings
• tax deductions for domestic hydrocarbon production
• railroad track maintenance
• indian employment tax credit
• duty suspension for wool products and wool research fund
• Sec 401 "permanent authority for undercover operations" !!!
• Sec 503 "exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children"

These are but a few of the many many many tag-ons to this bill. I think we're getting a heck of a lot more than we've bargained for on this one...

Too Hot

I am here to testify that even if one grows up in Texas, it does not guarantee a love of hot weather. For seven and a half years, I lived on the east coast, two and half years in Boston, and five in upstate South Carolina. In both of those places, September is a month of respite, of enjoying the coolness of fragrant Autumn breezes from the north, of the gorgeous colors of deciduous trees. Then, for some strange reason, I moved back to Austin, where a 10 degree dip in the temperature only barely gets us out of the 90's. Augh!

We got a brief little hiatus after Ike hit, but it's beginning to feel a lot like summer again. For the last week and a half, I have enjoyed not sweating profusely while biking home in the afternoons. In the graph above, it's usually at the max temperature that I make my ride home, and today was well into the 90's again. To think that a week ago I was actually a little cold on my morning ride!

The weatherman says we should have a slow, steady decline in temps for the rest of the week, but after having lived elsewhere and realized that this is not normal, I'm getting impatient for those Autumn breezes. After graduation, it's Northward Ho! Anywhere with four seasons!

It's time for a new seat

Alas, my faithful and intimate companion is close to retirement. I speak of my bike seat, which has served me well for many years. It took me a while to find just the right one, and I have a few old seats in my shed which did not pass muster before, inevitably leading to numbness and later to soreness on account of being too soft. Many recreational seats are marketed for their padding, but after more than a few miles, all that squishy padding ends up acting like a tourniquet on some pretty important arteries. I will say no more.So, the question arises of what to replace with. I'm thinking of two options, and they represent two quite different approaches. The first is less expensive, will not last as long, but would probably be OK for several years more. The critical feature is the cut-out, as shown in the $40 example below:

The other option appeals to the pay-for-quality buy-it-to-last-forever side of me, which is the fabled Brooks saddle:
You have to read the website and look at a couple of pages of Google search on "Brooks Saddle" to understand just how truly special it is. It is in fact a stretched leather upper that breaks in over a month or two and becomes personalized to one's own particular shape. There are plenty of stories of people riding the same saddle for 50 years and more. Apparently, after it's broken in, it more or less disappears from underneath you and you don't notice it any more. The only catch for me at present, and the reason that I hesitate, is the usual $80+ price tag. It is ill-advised to buy one used since it may have broken in on someone else's bottom...

So, that's the dilemma. I'll post a photo of the new saddle once I've decided.

Declining Gas Prices?

Don't get too used to declining gas prices. By many expert opinions (alas, I am no expert, but I agree anyway) this current dip in the price of gasoline is temporary. There's an article in the New York Times today about the oil industry and their struggles to find new production sources. The general idea is that the independent oil producers, ExxonMobil, for example, while awash in profits, are struggling to open up new production. One reason is political: as more countries nationalize their oil production, they are simultaneously restricting outside investment, with the result that, for example, American companies are not so free to go exploring in Nigerian oil fields. A second reason is closely related: there are not many more big new fields to finds, so those who have them are becoming more protective. Have you heard enough rhetoric about American dependence on foreign oil? Imagine the feeling in oil-rich countries about foreign consumption of their own precious oil. Think Russia wants to sell to just anyone? Think again: it's a big power position for them to hold large reserves.

The Peak Oil folks have been saying this kind of thing for years. Many of them have predicted this kind of thing, and they are going crazy on their websites with not-so-subtle "We told you so" proclamations. See here, here, and here for examples. Many people misunderstand the idea of Peak Oil to mean that we're running out of oil. That is not the case. There will always be oil to pump. The problem is one of macro-economics. As demand grows past supply, the price will start to rise steeply. What we're going to run out of is the cheaper-than-water oil that we've built our economies around. Think there's an oil-company conspiracy? It's just the economics of natural resource depletion playing out. Here's a snippet from the article:

The scope of the supply problem became more clear in the latest quarter when the five biggest publicly traded oil companies, including Exxon Mobil, said their oil output had declined by a total of 614,000 barrels a day, even as they posted $44 billion in profits. It was the steepest of five consecutive quarters of declines.

While that drop might not sound like much in a world that consumes 86 million barrels of oil each day, today’s markets are so tight that the slightest shortfalls can push up prices.

Along with mature fields, the companies have contracts with producing countries whose governments allocate fewer barrels to oil companies as prices rise.

“It has become really, really difficult to grow production,” said Paul Horsnell, an analyst atBarclays Capital. “International companies have a portfolio of assets in areas of significant decline and no frontier discoveries to make up for that.”

One reassuring point is that at least in the developed world, people are rapidly shifting away from ridiculously conspicuous consumption. Hummer sales have plummeted, and the carmakers can hardly sell new SUV's and pickups. Almost every car ad on TV now either offers $8k-10k discounts on SUV/trucks or trumpets the high mileage of the small cars they sell. Americans have scaled way back on driving and gas consumption. That is in large part what's responsible for the current dip in prices. That and the strengthening dollar. However, in India and in China, where fuel prices are highly subsidized, demand continues to grow largely unabated, so we shouldn't expect the current decline to last.

What should we do? Remember, "where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. (Matt 16:21)" The things of this world will pass away, so focus on the heavens. In an age and culture where car/house=identity, there is a real and living Person who can give us the incorruptible life... 

Also, you can ride a bike to save money on gas. ;-)

It's Hot!!!

We are about to break an 83 year old record for the most days over 100°F here in Austin, according to the Statesman. In my own particular corner of the world, the implication is that it's like biking home through an oven. My water bottle is about 1.5 L, and I usually finish it about 3/4th of the way home, and I usually have to cool off a little bit before going inside, where the air-conditioning (set to 81°F) is too cold for me and give me chills if I transition too quickly. Yeesh!

The high temperatures tend to introduce a few new creaks and squeaks on my bike, too. For a while, I started experiencing rim-flats, when the cheap rubber rim tape that came with my bike got too soft in the heat and allowed the inner tube to expand through the spoke holes and touch the spokes nuts. Whoever thought that would happen? Easy to fix with some better quality cloth rim tape, but annoying nonetheless. In addition, the grease in my drive line has thinned out noticeably in the hot weather and I have to re-grease more frequently and notice a bit more friction, which doesn't really help the body heat issue. Finally, there's a new creaky noise in the cranks (not the one I blogged about earlier) that got a little better when when I tightened the cranks but never really went away. It's not there in the morning, when it's cooler, but appears faithfully in the afternoon when when the heat's on and I'm baking my way home.

This is the time of year also brings out the perverse phenomenon of what I call "summer frost bite." I noticed it recently when my advisor walked into the lab wearing a sweatshirt. Many of the area secretaries also bring sweaters during the summer months. Apparently, Texans feel the need to show off how well our air conditioners work, so in many of the offices and labs, the thermostat is set below 70°F. Try walking in from outside, with your skin at 102°F and adjusting 30° down. The worst eve case of this was when I lived in an all-bills-paid apartment with roommates who kept the air at 66°F. I think I actually got sick one time after a bike ride. Fortunately, I'm alone in my office much of the time, and I've found the thermostat control...