Cyclists, drivers: Aretha, RodneyD have a word for you...

Aretha Franklin sang about it. Rodney Dangerfield swore he never got any. Some kids are taught it’s what they should have for their elders.

And these days, cyclists and drivers need to have it for each other.

Yep, you know what I’m talking about. As Aretha sings, it’s spelled: R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Cyclists are becoming more and more a part of road traffic as the popularity of riding a bike gains momentum as a way to get from point A to point B. It’s also getting bigger as a healthy, fun way to exercise and keep fit.

Cycling is on such a big upswing that it has brought about big numbers of accidents between cyclists and drivers that have killed or injured cyclists, here and in other countries.

But the problem isn’t just with drivers, angry that cyclists are in the lane that they always used to have for their vehicles. The problem lies equally with cyclists who completely ignore traffic rules and the safety precautions they need to take to minimize the chances that they’ll be flattened by a car or truck.

This is a national culture clash that is being forged through mayhem. And cyclists, because they have a whole lot less protection than a motor vehicle, have a lot more to lose than drivers.

So what’s the path to a cooperative roadway relationship between drivers and cyclists?

There are signs and stickers visible only on a rare occasion that urge everyone to “Share the Road,” which is a great start. Drivers all across the country that have never shared the road, should be presented with a more generous view on the matter. The view that now – in the interest of avoiding charges of vehicular manslaughter -- they really should share the road safely with cyclists.

But this isn’t a one-way problem. It isn’t just about preaching to drivers that they have to look out for cyclists. Because there are millions of cyclists out there that ride irresponsibly in traffic. I see them all the time. They’re everywhere. They don’t wear a helmet, they ignore stop signs, they talk on their phones while riding, they wear dark clothes while riding at night without reflectors. They’re a huge part of the problem. They need to realize that their blissful, “hit me if you dare” riding style is a recipe for a smack down that could maim or kill them. And when they get hit through their negligent riding, through no fault of the driver, the driver is left to feel the emotional and legal trauma of being unnecessarily part of what could be a tragic accident. Which could have been prevented.

What’s missing between riders and cyclists on the road?

I’d say it’s one big thing:

Respect for each other.

In my experience, although I’ve experienced a few harrowing exceptions, drivers are often respectful to cyclists on the road. They’ll give a rider space  – as long as the cyclist is riding within the rules and makes his or her intentions clear with hand signals pointing out a turn, waves, thumbs up, etc.

It’s all about communication riders really owe to drivers, if you ask me. A hand signal, that says, “I’m going this far out in the lane, please give me some space, so we can both get where we’re going without a problem.” It’s a sign of acknowledging the driver, respect, cooperation. It’s a very critical “we” versus “me” mentality.

But if the rider makes no effort to communicate with drivers with hand signals, etc., drivers are left to guess. And that often makes drivers feel fine about driving as close as possible to a rider they are passing. It’s their not so subtle way of giving the annoying cyclist the middle finger.

Now many drivers are in a hurry and hate to have to slow down for a cyclist. It makes many of them hit the gas in anger as they blow past the rider. This isn’t good, because in their anger, they can hit or run the rider off the road and force him or her into a crash.

These kind of drivers think the road is their domain only. They are irked by the idea of having to share it with a cyclist that might cause them to slow down a bit and lose a few precious seconds in getting to their destination.

Add it all up, and there’s plenty of blame to go around to both drivers and cyclists. So what will make it safer for both drivers and cyclists both using the same road at the same time?

I think it will take a change in mindset on both sides, a cultural shift, from what has been a car-centric nation, to one willing to tolerate cyclists. And a similar change in mentality needs to take place among the masses of cyclists, to seriously cut down on their irresponsible, unsafe riding habits in traffic.

This can be done with more, wider bike lanes built on city streets and on the plus side, a lot of that is happening. And while there have been some efforts to curb bad cycling with traffic tickets, that strategy just won’t work. Logistically it would be impossible and too costly to enforce.

So how about a well funded and creative national awareness advertising campaign to get more drivers and cyclists thinking cooperatively about each other on a national scale?

Who would have the dough to properly fund such a thing?

A lot of charitable foundations are out there. I’m thinking Bill Gates is the guy to hit up on this. That’s just me. I’m sure there are others.

The pitch:

“Hey Bill, so great that you’re doing the campaign to stamp out malaria in Africa, very commendable. But you’re far more bucks up than anybody anywhere, so why not throw a few million bones as a tax write-off on a national educational ad campaign touting driver/cyclist cooperation?  Think about it, you could help save lives and injuries in your own country. You would be the good guy in this effort, Bill, and you’d feel good about yourself for doing it. It would just be a matter of promoting more respect between drivers and cyclists on the road. You could call it the Respect campaign. It’s a short, catchy tag, the job very do-able.

Aretha Franklin, remember her? She could sing it up: “Whatchoowant? R-E-S-P-E-C-T…”

Rodney Dangerfield impressionists could help bring funny stuff to the campaign with some “I get no respect” lines.

And hey, kids could grow up riding bikes armed with the knowledge that respect for safety and drivers will help the odds of their avoiding injury or death on the bike.

Drivers could be presented with the notion that giving space to cyclists on the road is a better idea than trying to run them off it!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Sock-it-to-us, sock-it-to-us,sock-it-to-us, Big Bill. Whaddaya say? It’s a win-win-win proposition. Everybody wins.

Just sayin’…”

Until next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. And then, make sure you keep the rubber side down, have fun and be safe.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Mark Eric Larson has written two books of essays, "The NERVE...of Some People's Kids," and "Don't Force it, Get a Bigger Hammer. To read, visit: 

http://www.scribd.com/Mark%20Eric%20Larson/shelfHis blog of personal essays is at: http://marksmuzings.blogspot.com/

Surprise! And this time, good ones...

Surprises are part of the deal in riding a bike. We all know about the bad surprises, don’t we? Yes we do. For me those have included crashing when a squirrel ran under my front wheel, flatting with leaky spare tubes, getting honked at from behind by an angry driver, being insulted by a passing driver seemingly for no reason, having a spoke bend or break, rendering the bike unrideable in a remote place (twice), falling off the bike, unable to kick out of my clip in time (too many times, embarrassed to report), having the chain drop off mid shift (occasionally, but always annoyingly).

In general, most of my rides have tons of fun in them. Just getting out on the bike is the biggest thrill alone. But I just had a ride that blew me away with nice surprises. What made it extra great was that I didn’t expect any at all. I figured I’d have a rather routine, relatively low energy ride. I needed a second 51-mile out and back on the local bike trail to get in my the 100 maintenance miles I try for on weeks when I’m not off on big climbing rides with buddies.

The first 51-miler of the week was a good one, I had good energy but felt my stamina dropped off during the last 10 miles or so. It was cooler than I’d predicted so I didn’t wear leggings. My leg muscles stiffened up, so finishing out the ride was a cool, tired slog.

 I figured my second ride two days later would be slow pedaling base training, a way to raise my overall fitness. Holiday eating had made me feel heavy and I was ready to work off some LBs.

I wore leggings and a cold weather jersey this time. At about two miles into the ride is a 14.5-mile stretch that is flat with a few short, quick climbs and mild rollers. That’s where I like to go all out, time trial style, just for fun. Sometimes I have high energy and I go fast, other times I go medium fast, other times, pretty damn sluggishly.

On this last ride I felt I was in a medium fast zone, and was content not to push it. I was riding for base conditioning. After about three miles, a tall young rider passed me up with relative ease. He had a nice bike, he looked the part of a very strong rider, a thin Italian looking guy with black hair flowing out under his helmet. So I made the quick decision to grab his wheel. He was riding at about 21.7 miles an hour, quite a bit faster than I’d been, so I just told myself to draft him and enjoy the ride.

And I did, as he kept his pace. He pedaled hard but it didn’t seem to be too tough for him. I followed him up a steep pitch after about nine miles or so and then on the short downhill he pulled away. By this time, I’d been going fast on his draft, and I felt fresh. I gained on him and at the base of the last short climb of the section. He slowed down and I passed him on the up pitch. I had about a mile to go to the end of my time trial section of the ride, so I hammered it. I decided it would be fun if I could beat this guy to my 14.5 mile split line.

Of course, he’d given me all the energy I felt at that point. I had enough to get pretty close to the pace he set. I thought he’d be on my wheel, but he wasn’t. Gotta say, it felt great when I passed the split line. He gave me a medium fast time that would have been a whole lot slower without all that drafting speed and energy conservation. Nice surprise.

The second section of the ride is about nine miles with a bit of a climb, but after that fast finish at the first split, I was back in a slow-go mode.

After eating some energy snacks at the turnaround point at Folsom Lake, I took some photos of the nearly drained reservoir. Nice riding weather, but boy do we need a wet winter. Otherwise it’s drought time.

On the way back down from the lake there are some great descents, not too long but plenty fast, curvy and technical. I figured I’d just cruise after the main descent and go back to my original plan of slow pedaling base training. Then a rider passed me up in a slick looking black and red Colnago and I figured, hey, gotta grab his wheel too! I did, and noticed this guy had plenty of energy, he was spinning at 20 mph, in a lower gear than I usually use. He was a small wiry rider with a look and style much like the great French pro Thomas Voeckler. This guy, Thomas Voeckler’s seeming twin,

was rode fast with ease. The guy gave me energy just watching his cadence. So after awhile I passed him and he took my wheel. On a very steep, fairly short pitch toward the end of this split, I stood up and took the inside of the path, thinking I might beat Thomas Voeckler up it.

Well, no way! He took the outside and flew past me with a high standup cadence I couldn’t believe! That was awesome to watch. I caught up with him and we drafted back and forth, picking up and dropping another rider along the way.

Another tall rider joined our two man drafting blast and we traded off taking the lead every two miles or so. The tall guy also rode a nice Colnago, so when I was in front, working hard on 20-22 mph pace, he and Thomas Voeckler were chatting behind me relaxing, probably comparing notes on their bikes. Thomas Voeckler waved goodbye at about two miles left in the 14.5 mile split, looking fresh as ever. I just stayed on the wheel of the tall guy, who was doing a high-gear 20 mph pace. He peeled off just before the end of the split where I always do a 200-yard sprint, standing up. An older rider had just passed me going about 22-23 mph, so I decided I’d try to nose him out with my usual sprint. Put it in the highest gear and then stood, hammer all the way down. Passed the guy and finished the split, pressed my split time into my computer and flew into the 90 degree turn at the immediate exit path. I hit it wide and was nearly out of control, close to leaving pavement and hitting dirt.

Wow! Now that was a ride I expected would be routine. But it was anything but. It rocked all the way through. What a high! Pure joy. And it was all because of the energy from fellow riders I happened upon. Thanks guys, keep riding far and fast.

Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you ride, and then, you know what you have to do: Keep the rubber side down! Ride safe and make it fun.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Mark Eric Larson has written two books of essays, "The NERVE...of Some People's Kids," and "Don't Force it, Get a Bigger Hammer. To read, visit: 

http://www.scribd.com/Mark%20Eric%20Larson/shelfHis blog of personal essays is at: http://marksmuzings.blogspot.com/

Climbing out of the T-day stuffing...

My cycling buddy Pat texted me on Thanksgiving, suggesting we work off the food comas and do a couple days of climbing rides back to back. The first, he thought, could be the climb of Mount Diablo on Black Friday, and the second, Slug Gulch and Omo Ranch in Fair Play, Ca., in southern El Dorado County.

Mt. Diablo would be a 3,800-foot climb and descent, about 30 miles. Slug Gulch, which is the Sierra Nevada foothills of rural woods and vineyards, would be a 4,000-foot climb, part of a 40-mile loop.

I’m in, I told him, having been doing mostly flat roller riding, and hungry for some good ol’ mountain climbing.

Mt. Diablo is a great ride, as all cyclists living near to it and those from afar that have ridden it will attest. The lower section on the north approach from Concord has rugged asphalt, but as you ride upward, the views soon become huge, and the pavement gets newer and smoother. Cars are relatively rare on the winding two-lane road, and the air is usually crisp. It’s a good workout. At the top, there’s an extended steep pitch that will really test your fitness. I started it out of the saddle, but sat down about a quarter of the way up, and just did deep breath suffering the rest of the way. Once you’re up to the top parking lot, great views abound on sunny days, which this definitely was.

On Black Friday there were plenty of cars coming into and leaving the parking lot, full of view seeking peeps. I figured the descent might be slowed down by a lot of cars on the road, but there were two or three we caught up to for a short while, that politely let us pass, and allowing us to ride at our own speeds. The descent off the top of Mt. Diablo is a really a blast, a fun, semi-technical ride on the edge, one of my favorites. Each successive descent on it gets better because you learn the spots where you can safely let the bike go as fast as it wants to.

Back at the truck we agreed that ride had been an A+ outing. The weather was unseasonably warm, the air cool and comfortable, the pavement good to great and the traffic manageable. We all had high energy and no mechanicals. Good stuff.

Early the next day we drove to Fair Play and started the Slug Gulch ride. This ride has some very steep climbing from Pioneer Park at the beginning, especially at Slug Gulch Road, about five miles into the ride. The rest of the climb to Highway 88 isn’t as steep, but constant enough to keep you working hard to keep a good pace.

The air was chilly when we started around 10 a.m., but the immediately steep climbing made it easy to work up a lather and stay warm, while refreshed breathing it in. I’ve ridden the same ride in warm weather, and that makes the climbing a harder sweat-fest, and nearly impossible to get any cooling from the air. My inner quads had cramped up overnight from the Diablo climb the day before, so I took three electrolyte capsules with a big drink of water before starting the ride.

My energy was high again, and was able to hammer the toughest climbing on the first half of the ascent to the turnaround point at Highway 88. The pavement was newly coated with gravel for the first 10 miles, to give locals better traction in the winter. But it sucked to ride on, since occasionally, pebbles clanged into the bike and crank, and the loose stuff made us wary of slipping leaning into turns.

After a meetup resting point halfway up the climb, buddy Brian said he had to get back to help his Dad string some Christmas lights, so he decided to turn back there. Pat was entertaining the idea of not continuing on, since we had gotten a lot of good climbing in at Diablo and the first part of this ride at Slug Gulch. But hey, it was great weather, really freakishly warm for the last day of November, and we didn’t have to do anything more than go at a comfortable pace and enjoy the scenery. Besides, who knows when the real winter wet weather is going to kick in? Gotta ride when the riding’s good! Onward we went.

With about 10 more miles of less demanding climbing ahead, I decided to ratchet it down and just keep a decent spin. Pat was ahead, and I just opened my sensors to taking in the beauty of the woods I was riding through. Much of this section is in the shade of large pine and cedar trees, and the air is refrigerated and invigorating. I followed my breathing and felt the rhythm of the climb, cooling off a bit from my earlier lather. When we got to Highway 88, we decided to go to a small café about a mile up the road to have some snacks and warm up a bit. The place was buzzing with customers and nice and warm. I had a coffee and ate some of my pouch food, some jerky and a mandarin orange. Back on the road for our descent we were ready for the cool air sure to blast us for the first 10 miles of fast riding.

But I knew it would warm up nicely during the last half, so it was immediately fun just to bomb down the ridge. The road has lots of lurking chuckholes and ridges to keep a lookout for, so this section isn’t unlike a mountain bike ride. It’s a blast until you hit a chuckhole that you never saw. I hit one, but it didn’t do any damage, so that was appreciated! I was cold at first but not nearly as cold as a year and a half earlier when my buddy Marc and I were descending when we hit a rain cell which turned into some nasty hail! We just kept riding through it all, with numb fingers and feet, luckily able to keep from slipping through the hail cell. Once through that stretch of wet, the skies were clear, but the air was freezing until the lower part of the ride where the sun was out and it was relatively balmy. I remembered how cold I was on that ride and realized, I was far from that this time. Made it pretty easy to get through. I rode through the fragrant air of woodsmoke from nearby fireplaces in shady deep woods homes, bringing a blissful sensory highlight in the rushing cool air. The lower part of ride suddenly brought back a sunny and warm day, a different microclimate from the elevations above.

When we got back to the truck Pat and I were glad we finished out the ride. Over two days we’d climbed 7,800 feet and ridden about 70 miles. No better way to work off a T-day feast.

Now it’s December and hopefully there’s a wet winter ahead. That would mean less riding, but it could also avert a big time drought that is staring California in the face.

But normal colder and wet weather is coming sooner or later, and that means dressing efficiently to stay warm and relatively dry on rides. Check out these tips on good cold weather clothing choices…

Good info to avoid numb hands and feet!

Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet before every ride. Then do all you can to keep the rubber side down.

Have fun, and be safe.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Mark Eric Larson has written two books of essays, "The NERVE...of Some People's Kids," and "Don't Force it, Get a Bigger Hammer. To read, visit: 
http://www.scribd.com/Mark%20Eric%20Larson/shelfHis blog of personal essays is at: http://marksmuzings.blogspot.com/