Murphy's Law? Goes with road cycling...

I shot the bull with a couple of fellow riders recently about the relative alertness required when riding a mountain bike vs. a road bike. John said he thinks road bike riding requires less attention than riding a trail on a mountain bike. He won’t even listen to music while riding a mountain bike for fear of getting distracted and crashing.
Jim, on the other hand, said he’s OK with hearing his music while mountain biking as well as road biking. To him, a road bike also requires close attention at all times. He said, that on a road bike, the second you look away, get distracted by a thought, whatever, is when you’ll either hit a chuck hole you didn’t see, a squirrel will dart in front of you, or you’ll have to correct course to avoid going off the pavement and into the dirt. Without fail!
We agreed, it’s like Murphy’s Law. You’ll get caught in a no-man’s land for a split second if you’re distracted. And sometimes you can get out of it, other times you can’t. Like these fun little road bike scenarios:
• You forget to unclip one foot before stopping. You stop, and you can’t unclip fast enough to catch the tipping bike. Result? You fall onto the road, clipped into your bike.
• You’re not watching the road in front of you closely.
Result? You hit a bone rattling chuck-hole BAM-BAM, that immediately spikes the irritation meter. Damn! I never saw that hole!!! Hate it when that happens!
Hey, gotta forget the jarring bang-bang smack up and move on. But it’s easy to kick yourself for letting it happen. Oh, and right after that if you hit another chuck-hole you didn’t see right, all you can do is let out a primal scream!
• There are small deep grooves at a railway crossing that you need to keep your tires from slotting into. You don’t. Result? You’re front tire locks in, and you’re thrown off the bike. Arrrrghh!
• You’re agitated thinking about something or someone annoying while riding along, and your not nice thoughts seem to attract a road hazard, bet it a twig or branch, a rock, or an unmoving squirrel in your path. You see one of the above at the very last milli-second and make a quick evasive move that in itself almost makes you crash.
 But sometimes you don’t react in time and you ride over a twig while leaning on a turn, causing the one or both tires to skip laterally, bringing a split-second loss of control.
Result? You kick yourself and mutter, oh that was stoopid, bro!
So it’s true what John said, that on a mountain bike there’s so much information to process, you have to pretty much be on red alert at all times. Mountain biking is a series of stop and go sprints and constant preparation for riding through whatever’s ahead on the trail -- just to stay upright.
Road cycling tends to be more rhythmic and steady, so it’s a lot more conducive to periodically zoning out. Instead of seeing what’s on the road ahead, we don’t pick up an obstacle until the last millisecond and sometimes make a panic move. Which, yes, can cause a crash.
It truly is like Jim said. The second you stop paying attention on a road bike, it seems, without fail – BAM!! -- something unexpectedly funky pops up. If we’re lucky it’ll only be annoying instant and not the cause of a crash! Yep, plenty of focus is needed while riding the road bike, too.

Sand riding experiment
Sand bogs down tires and quickly slows down most bikes, even a mountain bike with thick, knobby tires. So it’s usually something most riders either avoid, or ride through as fast as possible to keep from getting thrown off the bike. One rider buddy, though, who rides both a road bike and a mountain bike, told me he just bought another bike with four-inch wide tires. Whaaaat?
These fat boys, he said, are made for riding through sandy areas. When I saw him this past week he was about to find out if this rig and its wide tires work in sand as advertised. He plans on riding across the exposed sandy bottom of Folsom Lake, a large reservoir that these days looks like a moonscape. It’s almost empty because of the nasty California drought over the past four years.
He’s looking at it as an adventure in the making. Will the fat tire bike negotiate a sandy, shifting surface that hasn’t been packed down by vehicle tires of any kind? Knowing this guy, however his experiment turns out, he’s gonna have fun with it. Rock on, bro.

Clipping in, clipping out
Unclipping from pedals can be a dicey move – especially if you can’t get out of your clips the very second you need to, and you, uh, tip over. Some clips hold tighter than others, and the lateral movement needed to pull out of the cleat can do a nasty twist of the knee if it’s too tight. I learned the hard way to adjust my mountain bike’s SPD clips, which are kind of like old-style ski bindings, so that they’re fairly easy to kick out of. Other style cleats make unclipping very fast and smooth, which is ideal. But a fast and smooth cleat release won’t necessarily stop a tip-over every time. I’ve found, and other riders I’ve talked to about this have agreed, that whenever you need to clip out super fast, you’ll usually be leaning the wrong way, and your wrong-way momentum will bring you down, clipped in! Yep, Murphy’s Law applies to cleats. But hey, really can’t blame the cleats. It’s mostly the result of good ol’ operator error!

Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely and don't forget…have a blast.
-- Mark Eric Larson

Driving to a ride with a roof rack? Uh oh...

When we need to put our bike(s) on or in our cars or trucks to drive somewhere to get to a ride site, we have three choices: Put the bikes on a roof rack, put them on a rear-mounted rack, or put them inside our car or truck.
As for roof racks, I’m pretty much over them for a couple reasons. One, it’s really easy to forget that you have your bikes on a roof rack. And that’s really not good. Because you have a lot less clearance with a bike on top, you can drive into low clearance areas with the bikes on top and BAAAMMMM!
Once I went on a group mountain bike ride and met at a foothills trailhead. One of the riders in the group, a guy that worked in the same office with me, was climbing a rutted pitch on the trail fairly early in the ride when his seat post suddenly broke off, seat and all! He got off the bike and saw that there was no fixing it, the post had snapped. He was faced with riding the rest of the super technical trail with a piece of round broken metal for a seat, or ride slowly, standing up, back to the parking lot and just wait for everybody to finish.
Which is what he did. The rest of us who rode on, couldn’t figure out how in the hell a seat post could just break off seemingly out of the blue like that without taking a sledgehammer-like hit.
When we got back, we heard the story. The week before, they guy had his bike on the roof rack of his buddy’s truck when they were on the way to a ride. They decided to stop to get a cup of coffee, and that required driving into a parking garage. The guy driving remembered at the last second that there were bikes up top on the roof rack, and hit the brakes. My buddy’s bike’s seat got wedged and torqued by the cement header over the garage entry. They backed out, checked the bike, and everything looked OK. But my friend’s seat post took on some serious force, and even though it seemed like no damage had occurred, the post’s tensile strength had been seriously compromised. Still, it made it through his ride that day, without a problem, so he didn’t know there was a looming problem.
But on the second ride after the stem was hit, when he sat down on it – the dude is 6 foot 7 and well over 200 lbs. – the seat post couldn’t handle the stress. Snap.
Then it happened to me and another buddy, after we had gone on a mountain bike ride and were almost home, coming off the freeway exit. A lane was closed off, but I told Kevin, hey, we can take a shortcut right through that parking garage.
Neither of us remembered we had our bikes on the roof, and BAAAAMMMM! He hit the brakes but the damage was done. The impact on the bike rack, bent one rail into a 90 degree angle and tossed my bike off. A cable lock kept it dangling, so it didn’t hit the ground. Kevin’s bike and rail was forced down onto the rear window, which popped on impact, turning the safety glass into gravel-like chunks.
We lucked out, both bikes were OK, no damage. The one rack rail was toast, as was Kevin’s rear window, which his insurance eventually replaced.
The cop that happened by while Kevin was on the phone to his insurer told us he’d seen roof-racked bikes get low bridged fairly regularly. So, no more roof racks for me. Plus they’re a pain to put on and off the roof. No longer happening.
Then there are the rear-mounted racks, which I’ve used on a buddy’s truck many times. He always put the rack on and took it off, so it was never a hassle for me, and it handled our bikes fine. But I also know that they’d be destroyed if ever we got rear-ended. So I’m about 50-50 on them.
Then there’s the put-it-inside-the-vehicle method of bike transport, which has become my favorite.
Why, you may ask? Mainly it’s safety and convenience. My buddy recent came to town to do some rides and my car was our mode of transport. I could have put one of the bikes on my roof rack and the other in the car’s expanded trunk with the rear seats folded down.
But hey, putting on the roof rack takes too much time, and then there’s the real potential of a low bridge smack-down of the bike. So no and no.
We took off each bike’s front tire, and laid one bike on its side. Then we spread a blanket over that bike, and put the second bike on top, reversed, back to front. We did so gingerly, so as not to bend derailleurs or spokes. And in very little time, we were good to go.
It worked out well. It’s my go-to bike transport solution. And the other good thing is the bikes are more secure covered up and locked inside the car than on a cable secured rack. Yep. It’s nothin’ but a win, win situation.

My bike computer’s battery died? Whaaaat?  
Somehow when I was recently recharging my Garmin bike computer, the thing was unplugged too early and it wasn’t fully charged when I took off on my next ride, a 32 miler.
The thing warned me the battery was low, but I figured I’d see if it would last for the length of the ride, then I’d recharge it. But it died with about six miles left in the ride. No biggie,
I rode home and plugged it in. But it showed my how much I look at the thing while I’m on the bike. When there’s just a blank screen, it’s pretty different. You can’t be preoccupied with the numbers on the screen. You tune into seeing surrounding landscape and ribbon of trail, you’re more present. But hey, I still can do that and check my speed and mileage on the computer. It’s a pretty well worn habit. So yeah, want the computer fully charged and working at all times! Isn’t that sort of like a weird addiction?

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 don’t forget: Have a blast!
-- Mark Eric Larson

Cold ride ahead? No problem!

It never fails when cold weather months come in. Even when it’s plenty cold outside – cold enough to warrant a coat, hat, possibly a scarf and gloves – there always seems to be someone out walking around in shorts. It could be snowing, raining, sleeting, or just plain crazy cold, and sure enough, there’ll be somebody in shorts.

Same on the bike trail in the cold. Always see bare-armed and bare-legged riders tooling along – grim faced, mind you – in air temps in the 40s and 50s. Hey, but they’re suffering weather they want to admit it or not.

So why freeze your nads off when you don’t have to? What’s the deal? Really don’t know the answer to that. Closest I can come to it is that it’s a macho thing.

Cold? Hell, it isn’t cold out (yes it is, it’s in the freakin’ 40s) the SUN’s out! Shorts are fine. Coat? Well, maybe.

But riding a bike in air temp that is in the 40s and 50s, is, because of the wind chilling that takes place, is more like dealing with temps in the 30s and 40s, almost naked. Crazy!

So whenever I see a bare-armed, bare-legged rider pass by when by any sane standards, it’s pretty damn chilly out, I wonder: Are you kidding? I know you’re freezing, it’s just not possible to not be freezing. Maybe it's a goofy way to prove they’re tough, or someone stole their warm cycling clothes and they really want to get a ride in without ‘em.

Whatever, while I like to be warm enough to ride comfortably in cold weather, there’s truly a happy medium. Too many layers and you can get hot. But layering with an undershirt, and a jersey works, as does a pullover long sleeve jersey, as does a windbreaker. When it’s cold but not crazy cold, arm warmers are an option to go with short-sleeved jerseys.

Other than keeping your torso and arms covered, the key to staying warm includes keeping key nether parts from the freezing air: The head, the ears, the fingers the legs and the toes.

The head and the ears kinda go together. If it’s super cold I wear a scull cap under my helmet, and it covers the tops of the ears, which is big for heat retention.

Long-fingered gloves get the nod for super cold rides, but I like having the dexterity of half-fingered gloves. So I’ll usually wear them unless it’s just ridiculously cold.

And a couple of things keep the toes and feet warm. Some riders wear foot covering booties, and others just a toe cover. Beyond that, wool socks are good for full-on foot warmth.

Bottom line is to keep enough heat in a cold weather ride so that you’re comfortable, not in cold torture mode.

Cold, low energy: Slog time

I went on some some cool weather rides this week, after months of warm to hot weather rides. I found a couple of factors along with the cold that made for slowish, slog-like rides of 30 to 50 miles. If my energy level is low to begin with, for whatever reason, be it lack of sleep or physical tiredness from a lot of activity, a ride in the cold weather makes it hard to get warmed up.

I recall from past cold rides that I would ride as fast as I could at the start to try to get a lather going and some energetic rhythm in the pedals. But on these past early cold season rides, I haven’t had the initial energy to fire off from the start. It just hasn’t been there, and the cold seemed to be clamping down on my leg muscles. So for me at least, having plenty of energy at the start can get the pace going, and that can minimize the effects of the cold as an obstacle to establishing a nice crisp rhythm. Energy level is often different in some degree, every time out on the bike, so it’s a matter of working with what you have that day.

So a low energy level in cold weather, for me at least, means the ride’s probably going to be a bit of a slog.

But once a few cold rides are under the belt, I’m betting just being conditioned to them will result in higher initial energy levels. As long as I get enough sleep in before the ride, that is!

Paint job ruminations

I find the various paint jobs on road bikes and others fascinating. Because when bikes of different brands cost relatively the same for that weight and component mix, there really isn’t a huge edge, technically, one holds over the other.

So what makes somebody buy one brand of bike over another?

I think it’s the paint job. A rider is definitely going to buy the brand of bike of his price range that has the coolest paint job. But the thing is, there are trends in bike paint jobs, just like in clothes. So what is the coolest paint job one year, may become quite passé in another year or two, when an even cooler paint job is selling bikes. A few short years ago, bikes with lime green, blue, white and black paint combos were all the rage because Peter Sagan, on of the most popular cyclists in the pro peloton, rode a Cannondale Evo pained with those colors.

After that, I noticed road bikes with a flat black base finish and gray lettering became the big look. That I really didn’t get, because, hey, isn’t a bike with some cool color combinations more interesting than flat black?

Among the latest new trends in bike paint jobs is a base of flat black with neon yellow logos and lettering. Cippollini bikes sport this look, and I gotta say, they look very sleek. It will definitely help those bikes sell. At least until the next way wicked color combo comes along to sell another new line of bikes!

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 don’t forget: Have a blast!

-- Mark Eric Larson

When on the bike? It's good to be seen...

Blinking red rear bike lights are a good idea to put to use, mainly because without them, you may not be seen by another cyclist, or worse, a car coming from behind.

I mostly ride during the day, but just because it’s a sunny day, doesn’t mean you couldn’t use a flickering red light on the back of your bike. In the fall months, especially. Shadows are longer and darker and when we ride into shadowed areas on a roadway, we can be invisible to a car.

My riding buddy Brian pointed that out to me on a recent ride. I told him I recently rode into a shady area of the bike trial I frequent, only to look over to my right to see a large deer standing at the edge of the trail. The shade had made this huge animal invisible. As I rode by, I could have touched the deer. It didn’t move a muscle. I was glad it didn't, since it could have bolted right in front of me and I could have T-boned the big beast. And I’m worried about hitting squirrels! How about a big freakin’ deer! Uh, no thanks.

Brian rides with a USB chargeable red tail light on his bike, which he sets to a blink to be more visible in traffic and in the shadows. After our ride, I was convinced to go buy one and put it on my bike. There’s about a quarter mile of heavy traffic I ride through to get to and from the bike trail I often ride on, and having a red light flickering under my seat can only help attract drivers’ attention that I’m also using the lane they’re in.

I also bought an LED headlamp for my mountain bike helmet, since I sometimes ride that bike at night coming home from work. The first time I rode home in the dark – the ride is only a couple miles or so – I rode down a familiar back alley to connect to a neighborhood street, but suddenly realized I was riding in complete darkness.

Now that’s a freaky feeling. It reminded me of the time I was mountain biking down a trail on a hot summer day in the Sierra foothills a few years ago and there was a tunnel to ride through that went under a highway. It was bright and sunny, and I rode into the tunnel at a pretty good clip. It was suddenly completely dark, and I was riding on squishy sand. This was weird, because my eyes didn’t adjust too well to the darkness because I was wearing sunglasses. I looked ahead to see a patch of light at the end of the tunnel, and pedaled hard to get to the end. I made it, but was a bit rattled by just having pedaled through a space/time warp of sensory deprivation! I remember thinking if I dumped the bike in that tunnel, who knows what was lurking in there in the cooler air. I was thinking rattlesnakes in my worse case imagination! That just made me pedal faster.

But back to the headlamp purchase for night rides on my mountain bike. A co-worker who rides a lot at night suggested getting a hiker’s or miner’s headlamp style light which is attached to an adjustable headband. This guy doesn’t wear a helmet, so he pulls it over his forehead. He said it works well because the light illuminates wherever he looks while on the bike. That’s a good option to not only light the path of the bike but any areas you want to see peripherally, which a bike-mounted light may not do as well. I stretched the headband over my mountain bike helmet and so it’s night ride, road ready. Probably won’t use it till spring, though, when night commuting isn’t so freakin’ cold!

      
       Sand on the trail

A great mountain bike ride in the Lake Tahoe area is the Flume Trail on the northeast rim of the lake. It has spectacular high up views of the lake and surrounding mountains, which is a big reason to ride it. But the one thing it also has is trails that are softened up big-time by decomposed granite, better known as sand.

Most of the sand on its trails isn’t too deep, only a little squishy at worst. But I remember a part of the ride that had a stretch of sand that really tested the ability to stay on the bike. It is at the end of a fast descent from the mountain ridge above Marlette Lake. Most of that trail is hard packed and good for traction. But near the bottom, you get to a part where your bombing pretty fast, and it’s suddenly a sandy, somewhat sideways slanted part of the trail. If you don’t keep your speed through it, it’ll dump you off the bike.

My buddy John told me he hit that very spot and made the mistake of hitting his brakes. He took a nasty fall when the bike bogged down in the sand, and he went flying. He got skinned up pretty good, but John, being the resilient and optimistic guy that he is, insisted that all things considered, it was still a great ride.

But bottom line, sand can throw you off the bike in a heartbeat if you don’t keep your speed all the way through it. Sometimes you can, sometimes not. But the using the brakes in sand? Uh, don’t do it, the bike’s almost sure to go down.

        Slog rides are good? Yep

I’ve recently had a lot of what I call slog rides. You know, the ones where everything’s working against you. Wind, low energy, detours. But those rides, even though they’re slow, are productive pedal times. You get your ride in, and you work on your mental and physical toughness by slogging through all the obstacles. You’re building a foundation for riding through a bit of suffering. It’s good conditioning and makes it easier to handle any mentally and physically tough situations that sometimes pop up in any ride.

        

        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 don't forget: Have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson