Beat the cold, push the envelope... Uh, within reason

Riding in cold weather has been a mixed bag for me. Sometimes I’ve dressed well enough to keep warm, sometimes not. I put on leg warmers and layer with a wicking t-shirt and a long sleeve fleece jersey, (some riders wear nylon vests or jackets) wool socks, toe covers, long-fingered gloves. And a fleece scull cap that will cover the ears. Sometimes that isn’t even enough.

Went on a winter ride a couple years ago up to Donner Pass and along Donner Lake. Along the south side of the lake where it was cold shade, parts of road were covered with crusty, icy snow. So we had to walk the bikes through that section. Back on dry pavement we headed north across I-80 up to the high ridges to the north of the lake. My buddy Marc had ridden this loop before, and when we got to a turn almost at the top, that would take us to the very top of the ridge, he said we might want to go up to the top.

Hold on bro, I said, we have to head back. It’s windy and the sun will be behind the mountains pretty soon. That’ll make it even colder, and then it’ll be dark before you know it.

Marc, ever the envelop-pusher on rides, reluctantly agreed. We headed back down to the north side of the lake and headed west to the curvy but not too long of a climb back up to the top of Donner Pass.

By that time the sun was behind the mountains to the west, and oh boy, that definitely made the temp dive. I grew up at Lake Tahoe and over the years learned that wintertime cold in the shade is a whole lot chillier than wintertime cold in full sun. A whole lot. Same for winter sun and clouds, big temp diff. Somewhat warm, even mild at times, to wicked chilly.

We rode the gradual descent back toward the truck several miles in the frigid shade, with the wind from riding reminding us how freaking cold it was when you added wind chill factor to the equation. That stretch was also dicey because what was watery snow melt-off on the road earlier when we rode the other way, was now starting to freeze. So we had to be super careful riding through those black ice slap down fun zones.

When we got back to the truck it was nearly dark, and we were cold to say the least.

I told Marc it sure was a good thing we headed back when we did. Reluctantly, he agreed. But he’s crazy enough not to worry too much about riding in the freezing cold through ice patches, in the dark. That’s why I love riding with this guy. He’s not satisfied with any old ride. He wants to push it to the limit every time. Let’s ride farther, higher, or both. But sometimes he needs to be reeled in a bit! Don’t really want to run out of water in the heat on a tough climb, or slip on an ice patch while riding in the dark, in a remote place. No thanks!

Still, Marc’s got the right attitude. If you don’t push yourself beyond what you think you can do, you’ll never know what kind of intestinal fortitude you have – or don’t have. He’s pushed me to test my riding limits several times, and even though some of those rides were brutal suffer-fests, it was a feeling of victory to make it to the end, exhausted but satisfied. Totally worth it.

Keepin’ a clean mean ridin’ machine

Wintertime riding can get wet if rain is in the mix before or during a ride. That means the bike gets mucked up usually with mud and other gritty road matter. Some riders have a separate winter bike to use for less than ideal conditions in the winter. They function more or less as beaters that can take the weather with little or no maintenance cleaning. I’d love to have one of those, but for now,  it’s not in the cards. So I just wash the bike and clean the chain, then give it a good oiling. Here’s a great video with a very thorough explanation of why it’s good to keep that chain clean. All very good bike info to know. Turns out, it’s probably best to clean the chain more often than we might think to keep it from stretching and grinding down the gears. Check it out…

Training with a rabbit

One way to get in some fast riding is to try to catch somebody who has a head start on you. If they’re fast, it’s a challenge, and you may not catch them. But if you think you can, with sustained fast riding, you probably can. Took me 11 miles to catch my buddy PJ on the 25 mile ride back home. Dude doesn’t get to ride as much as he wants. If he did, no way would I have caught up to him!

Til next time, always strap on a helmet before every ride. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely and have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Bike tweaks, descent turns and road rash remedies

A few years ago, as I gimped through lower back pain, I went to a spine doctor who prescribed physical therapy. He said my back needed stabilization and a stronger core would bring that. Doing the several weeks of PT I learned a routine of daily hamstring stretches and core work that strengthens the transverse abdominal muscle, the muscle band under the abs that, when strong, really keeps the vertebrae and discs from banging into the sciatic nerve. Those shifts bring a parade of crippling pain for months on end. I’ve had that happen, and I’m here to testify, it’s none fun at the beach. One wrong move and the pain sears down the unlucky leg affected, all the way down to the toes. When I did get over it, there was nerve damage in the bottom of my left big toe, leaving a permanent numb patch. Nice!

Anyway, as part of the back exam at the sports medicine department of UC Davis, you can opt for a road bike fitting by a specialist. You bring in your bike, the clinician places it on a machine that holds the bike via the back axle, and the clinician, also a road biker, takes measurements. He then recommends adjustments to the seat, handlebar position and cleats, so your back doesn’t get out of whack and bring on pain while riding the bike.

The clinician, I think his name was Chad, saw that my right foot extension went a little shorter than my left, and that it caused me to sit unbalanced on the saddle, right cheek hanging off a bit, so to speak. To square things up on the saddle, he added plastic spacers to my right cleat. He also pushed my seat back farther and recommended that my handlebars get raised up to measurements he provided on a computerized graphic. The changes were meant to make me sit more upright on the bike, in a more back friendly position.

But when I took my bike to the bike shop and showed the prescribed raising of the handlebars to Jesse, the bikestore owner, he shook his head.

“If I put your handlebars that high, you’ll be way too light at the front of the bike,” he said. "I’ve seen this guy’s recommendations from other cyclists that have come in, and all they do is put your center of gravity too far back.”

He really didn’t want to make the adjustment. So I figured I’d split the difference and have him raise the handlebars to half the recommended height. And even at that change, they seemed a bit high.

But I wanted to give it a shot to see if it helped my back, and if it threw too much weight off the front, as Jesse predicted.

I rode the bike in all conditions for a few years with those adjustments. I had some back issues here and there, but I attributed them to stress, mainly.  And I also realized, especially on steep climbs, that Jesse was right. The front end was too light and while climbing, it required a lot more leaning forward to keep balance, than it would with lower handlebars.

I got used to it and forgot about it, until after getting some recent work done on the bike by Adaman, a top notch mechanic. He saw the high setting on the handlebars and suggested I bring it down, essentially level it off, with a different post for more balance and control on the bike. He also saw my seat set all the way back, and recommended it be adjusted forward, as another change to help center balance on the bike.

I thought back about the somewhat “off” feeling of the more upright position with the high handlebars and pushed back seat, and decided to change them as Adaman suggested. On rides since the changes, I definitely feel a more efficient center of gravity on the bike. And so far it hasn’t bothered my back at all.

Looking back, I think the most helpful part of the adjustments made a few years ago, were the added spacers to my right cleat. Before, I rode kind of shifted off the right side of the saddle, and on long rides, that had to be messing with my back. But with the spacers, I’m squared up on the saddle, and not pulling down on the right side of my back.

Meanwhile, my climbing position is more balanced with the handlebars lowered. And the small move forward of the seat has been barely noticeable, but feels right.

And...

Just got new brake and shifter cables on my bike, along with new brake pads. Wow, what a difference. Tight braking, precision shifting that I’d missed with the old stretched cables. Should have had them replaced a long time ago, but never really thought about it until above-mentioned Adaman told me they were shot. He clued me in when I took the bike in to get the spokes trued on my new wheel set. The bike now has very tight shifting and responsive braking. Great call by Adaman.

Curving descents? Learn the best line to ride

In dry conditions, taking a turn on a fast descent requires you to take the right line into the turn. That prevents riding off the road and crashing from a too wide or too tight line. Wide swings into a turn line work really well to exit out of the turn where you want, and that typically helps maintain speed. I’ve found I have to use the brake too much if my line into a turn is too tight. The key, though, is riding through a descent turn slowly a few times so you learn the best line to take at a higher speed. Learning the right line on the fly while doing a turn on a fast descent can force a quick course correction to avoid crashing, and sometimes the jerky correction itself can cause loss of control of the bike. So it pays to learn a ride’s fast descents with caution the first time. Once you know them, you can confidently take just the right arc through it to keep most of your speed.

Heal that road rash

A wet front tire, on dry pavement curve still caused my front tire slip out: Slap-down crash. Ouch. Road rash on my right arm is slowly healing after a week of regular bandage changes. After the old bandage is pulled off OUCH!, I’ve  washed it with soap and water, dried it with a paper towel, and sprayed it with Bactine before putting on clean bandages. Thanks to blog reader Bob Burpee@icemanbb who suggested using Nexcare bandages on road rash. I’ve found the worst pain from pulling off old bandages that stick to the wound. These scrapes can easily get infected, and tend to take a little time to heal on the most shredded or gouged areas. I put some aloe vera gel on the road rash after it has dried out a bit, and that stuff gets the healing on, too.

But here’s some professional advice on the subject. Check it out, good stuff to know…

Until next time, remember to strap on your helmet every time you get on the bike. Then keep the rubber side down, ride safe and have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Slick curves can smack you down...OUCH!

Monday was forecast as the only sunny day for the week, after a wet weekend. So I set out on the bike Monday morning, even though the streets and trails hadn’t fully dried out. There were sections still wet from newly fallen rain. Wet leaves pasted on pavement were plentiful. So the road was very slick in parts. Yes, I knew this. So I intended to ride accordingly.

Oh, the best laid plans.

Once I got out on the trail, it was still plenty wet in places, even though the sun had come out. I got a pace going, and settled into the ride, which I figured would be my typical out and back 51-miler. I rode at a slowish, medium-fast pace.

 At about the five-mile point, a guy passed me going at a very crisp 20-21 mph pace. So yep, I got on it to grab his wheel. And since I’d been a bit sluggish so far, this was no easy bit of work!

I caught up to him, but he kept banging hard. I rested in his slipstream. We came to a bridge where there’s a long upward gradual pitch and as he slowed down, I passed him at around 20 then picked up speed down the other side of the bridge. I hammered hard for several miles and didn’t see any sign of him when I looked back.

I slowed down a bit and, seemingly out of nowhere, he passed me again! He was on his high pace and I got on his wheel again and rested. When he slowed a bit, I passed him again. He kept behind me about three bike lengths as I tried to keep a strong pace. We rode through a sharp turn and I heard his back wheel click as he stopped pedaling on it. He slowed on turns, knowing they were slick, some in the shade. I just kept focused on my pace even on turns. (This was where I should have kept in mind there were slick conditions. I didn’t, I was too caught up in keeping a strong pace. #wake up!)

We rode into a section with a series of several tight turns that comes out into a flat of about 200 yards. At the end of that section is a tight left/right/left turn that starts off flat and ends on a short downhill to a straightaway. I usually hit this section hard to build speed for the straightaway, and the pavement looked dry.

But when I turned the quick right after the left, I had leaned too far right with my weight mostly over my front tire. The tire squirted out from under the bike and it was a quick slap down fall on the pavement grinding hard into my right forearm and hip. Ouch!

The guy I’d been trading the lead with stopped to check on me, nice guy. I had major road rash on my arm and felt my hip burning, but hadn’t ripped my shorts. I was still catching my breath from hammering.

The guy helped me get my chain back on the big ring, and recommended I go wash off my bloody arm right away. He took off, probably riding a little slower then we had been!

I rode to a water fountain, rinsed off my arm and rode home. The bike was OK, and I felt lucky about that, and the fact that I had no broken bones. I could move my fingers no problem. I had a similar road rash from a squirrel runover crash on my left side a couple years ago. So now I’ll have matching under forearm scars.

I thought about the fall and concluded I’d made couple of errors. First, I’m pretty sure the tire slipped because it was still wet from earlier water on the trail. I saw the dry double curve and assumed there would be traction. Compounding the problem was that I had a lot of my weight forward on the bike, with too much of a right side lean over the front tire, which is how I typically ride that section for speed. But with a wet tire, it was a bad move, since it put a lot of sideways pressure on the wet tire, and it just squirted off the pavement. And down I went, HARD!

So, lesson learned. It’s just smarter to ride slower and more upright on curves when you have wet tires, even if the road is dry. Because, well, slap down falls are a pain-fest that can keep you off the bike for awhile. Best avoided.

Back in the saddle

Four days after my crash, afternoon rain was forecast, so I decided to take off mid-morning for a three-hour ride and make it back before the drops were predicted to fall. I figured I’d just turn around if it started to rain.

I had road rash on my taped up right forearm from the recent crash, so I was determined to keep the rubber side down. My right arm surely didn’t need another heavy scrape off with the asphalt. Don’t know how pro riders can ride the day after getting a nasty dose of road rash. The pain of a fresh wound doesn’t go away too fast. Ugh. May the healing begin. It can’t come fast enough.

So I rode without pushing for speed, i.e., fairly leisurely. The pavement was mostly dry, but on one short stretch I had to ride through a thin layer of mud where a mudslide had been bulldozed off the trail. I think there’s only one thing slicker than ice or water on pavement for a road bike’s tires. And that’s a thin layer of mud! Glad to get through that short stretch, out and back, rode through it straight and fast.

I was stoked to see the sky turned out to be half clouds, half sun for the whole ride. I got back at about the predicted 2 p.m. start of rainfall. It turned out to stay rain-free for another five hours. Gotta love it when a full ride can be had when rain is coming, but without a soak down!

Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely and have fun.

-- Mark Eric Larson