Bike Burrito

I've been walking the three miles to work and back the past couple days. Now that some of the snow has melted I've regained my confidence and am back on the saddle. I've removed the clipless pedals and am going with platforms. This alone increases my confidence three-fold. There's something about being able to put a foot down at will.
The bike lane is still pretty much covered or has that thin ice sheen almost all the way from East High to downtown, so I stayed in the wagon wheel tracks left over from cars down 16th. My ride a was bit squirrelly in a couple spots, but nothing that my pacemaker couldn't correct.
Looks like it's in the mid-thirties now... Looking forward to the Bike Denver meeting and dinner ride tonight.

Labels: Bike Commuting, Winter

At long last, the 12th Avenue ramp is open on the Cherry Creek Bike Path -- as noted by intrepid blogger Josh, the path has been open since Friday. I rode down this thing today, and it's pretty great, as far as new bike ramps in my neighborhood go.

Labels: Applause

Tonight after work, I pedaled east up 16th Avenue and turned south on Sherman Street, headed towards the State Capitol building. I usually cut through the capitol parking lot on the west side of the building and end up at the stoplight at 14th and Sherman. Tonight, I ripped around the corner and banked through the pylons onto Sherman, not even slowing down. It occurred to me that I almost always, like 80 percent of the time, get a green light at that intersection. (Unlike the light at Lincoln and 12th, which I think I hit about 2 percent of the time.)

Labels: Stoplight

Tuesday, I went on a mission, to decide where I should live in Washington, DC. While my girlfriend, Karen, has been gracious enough to host me in her apartment since I moved, and while I'm looking for a job, I don't have quite enough room to stretch out... and by that I mean there is no place to store my 1977 Schwinn Paramount tandem.
I've been hitting the Craigslist posts pretty religiously, and finally thought I had something great. It was a big house on the Red Line, and the roommate was a geochemist who knew a lot about vulcanology. For those of you who know me, what better arrangement than living with someone knowledgeable about aa and pahoehoe? The only problem was because it was late at night, freezing, and last minute when Karen and I visited (by car), I didn't have any idea about getting to and from the area by bike. So the next day, I decided to scout my potential living situation.
My goal was to use the same process that I tried in Denver, it goes roughly like this:
1) Find where you work, or will likely work
2) Find where you will spend a bunch of time
3) Decide to live somewhere in between the two that is accessible by bike
In Denver it worked great, I worked downtown, went to D.U. almost every day, and lived near 8th Ave and Inca, four blocks from the Cherry Creek Bike path that would take me between those places. D.C., is much more expensive in certain areas, and living at the midpoint was not a realistic option, especially with 6 bikes to accomodate.
This time I thought a little out of the way might be OK, so I tried this route:

Getting from Karen's house (denoted by the orange text "special lady") to the house (blue X marked "too far") took a little over four miles. Getting from there to work (denoted as "Daily Grind", and no, I don't work at a coffee shop), took about five and a half. Returning to Karen's took another two and a quarter. Perhaps I was influenced by the recent deep freezes, or perhaps it's the reckless taxis, or the harrowing tactics of all D.C. delivery drivers, but I just felt like if I could avoid the extra commute miles, I ought to.
I checked out another place for the same price right across Rock Creek Park from Karen's apartment, about one and a third miles away (denoted by the fuscia X and "OK"). It had about as much space, with much closer proximity to the places I want to be. For all of you economists reading, I bet you are asking, "well, if it's closer, and the same price, there must be some trade off, high crime, no roof, a loud nightclub upstairs, etc. to justify the low relative price."
Correct! The trade off is that one of my roommates will be a six year old boy. I haven't met the kid yet, but his mom, Colleen, tells me he's a real swell kid, and that he frightens her when he bombs the hill into the park on his bike to see how fast he can go. Sounds like we'll probably get along. Only time will tell, but there is this luxury that most D.C. residents don't get, I have a private bathroom and office, and plenty of safe basement for my fleet of bikes.

Labels: Apartments, Bike Commuting, Roommates

The wind seemed to be coming from all directions on my ride this morning. I think the wind was at my back for maybe half a block. It nearly knocked me off my bike several times, most notably when I was doing a track-stand at a stop light. Thankfully for my ego, I was able to unclip quickly enough and managed not to look like too much of a jackass.
Pedestrians also become much more hazardous in the wind. I crossed the 16th street mall twice, and both times I had to dodge people walking in front of me. This happens pretty much every time one rides across the mall, but when it is windy out, people tend to duck their heads down and have tunnel vision, meaning that they are even more oblivious of their surroundings than normal.
The only thing I enjoyed about the wind this morning was the tumbleweed I saw blowing down Colfax.

Labels: Weather

This is the dreaded Goathead Bur, an evil thorn endemic to Colorado's plains. The weed has other names, like "puncture vine", "devil's thorn", "devil's weed" and "Mexican sandbur".
To these thorns, I owe all but one of the flat tires I've gotten in Denver. The goathead also gets credit for a double flat my step-dad received when he borrowed my 3-speed to go on a ride with my mom; I had to leave work to go pick them up. My little brother's first trip out here was also colored by a double flat from a patch of these bastards, although he did upgrade my tubes to heavy duty rubber to resolve the problem.

These photos were taken at West High School near my house, where they appear to be cultivating them in the planter boxes that used to grow trees, as well as the entire way around their running track.
I meticulously pluck out every nascent weed from my yard so that these evil plants are nowhere near my bike tires, and I have even gone so far as to stop on my bike commute to remove them from places I know I will be riding through on a daily basis.
These were growing on the sidewalk near my entrance to the bikepath. I pulled all of them out while rush hour cars drove past wondering what the heck I was doing.
Unfortunately, West High is too far gone for anything but radical intervention. Their time is short, these devils dry out in August, and start scattering around the city at about the same time. Stay on your toes, dear reader, goathead season is near.
I understand there is an ecologically safe method for attacking Goatheads:
Two weevils, Microlarinus lareynii and M. lypriformis, native to India, France, and Italy, were introduced into the United States as biocontrol agents in 1961. Both species of weevils are available for purchase from biological suppliers but purchase and release is not often recommended because weevils collected from other areas may not survive at the purchaser's location.
And as we all know, when given the choice, we must choose the lesser of two weevils.

Anyone know where I can buy a swarm of these little guys?

Labels: Goathead Burs, Goathead Thorns, Weevils

Though we're already well into 2009, it is time to liven up the blog. As you may have noticed, after a year of frequent posts, things have slowed down a bit. Like any team after a hard season of cycling, there is a high level of fatigue, and no sign of when we will return to peak form. Taking a page from the Astana book after the 2007 Tour de France, the solution is clear, recruit fresh cyclists. While I can say very definitively that doping was not a factor in this decision, and that no bike commuters will be sacked, we will be adding more contributors to this here bike blog. If you, dear reader, are interested in becoming a contributor, please write up a post, a summary of your bike commuting credentials, and send it over to willhandsfield@gmail.com.
I'm also going to add a few folks from our nation's capital, so don't let the limits of geography crush your dreams of becoming a bike blogger. I will say no to all foreigners, however, especially Northern Europeans. I don't care that your bicycling life is perfect, and we don't want to read about your trouble of having to return to the bakery because they gave you the long baguette when you ordered the wide one. Like any good story, we need conflict, and right now, America is full of bicycle related conflict, and not just the Shimano v. Campagnolo kind.
If you've got what it takes, we want to hear about your commuting experiences.

Labels: Invitation