Since I got my bicycle(s) last year, I've done dozens of Free Daily Rides with the Cascade Bicycle Club (CBC.)

Most of my bicycle mileage so far has been on these rides. More so in 2008 since I haven't been back to California with my bicycle since the end of 2007. And I haven't done a whole lot of event rides like I did last year.

With all the CBC daily rides that are out there -- some 1,200 a year -- there's usually some ride I'm interested in joining. But not always. And the ride leaders out on the weekday rides have been saying they're tired of leading or want a break. And the popular rides often have so many people that extra leaders always help, especially for those wanting a faster or slower pace.

Becoming a ride leader is quite easy. Ride three times with CBC. Then go to a 2-1/2 hour orientation. Then co-lead 2 rides.

So what does a leader do? Aside from filling out paperwork so we can call somebody in case of emergency, track and help with accidents and problems; mostly it's group cohesion and safety issues you worry about. Seattle Bike Club pretty much treats every rider as a leader, but with the 10,000 or so CBC members they are after a bit more organization.

Interesting things: CBC wants to have more ride leaders lead beginning riders, kids, and slower riders. They want more weekend rides. (I'm apparently not that necessary.) Biggest complaints are from ride leaders not following the posted pace of the ride. Serious accidents are quite rare. (Most accidents are due to people riding too closely; when a front tire touches a rear tire an accident usually results.) It takes six months to "earn" a bicycle jersey. Ride leaders often call participants after the ride if they had problems.

Once I co-lead a couple of rides I get to schedule my own rides through the website. I'll mention what those are on the blog. Maybe this fall I'll do night rides with my singlespeed?

Most other people there had very specific scenario questions and I think most of the responses from the teachers came down to either "use your judgment" or "this isn't adult daycare". Most concerns were about those riders who can't take care of themselves on a ride. CBC ride leaders don't have any responsibility to resolve mechanical issues or rescue sick riders. In an emergency, a ride leader is expected to stay with the cyclist but mostly we were told to delegate, if possible these tasks, since very often there's a lot of things going on at once: make that 911 call, call their emergency contact, deal with the person's bicycle, keep the ride going or turn it around, fill out reports, deal with traffic, get first aid, etc.

One other thing to note: Practically anybody can lead a ride. We had fat people in that "didn't like hills" and wanted to lead 10-12 mph rides. There's a lot of newbie fatties interested in rides as well.

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I rode a hot 65 miles Saturday on Gary's "first annual" ride to Barlow Pass. Here's the pictures. I'm here and here and here. I was wearing my Vietnam bike tour jersey. I didn't know cyan was my color.

It was hot but a couple of streams of water brought cold air down from the mountains. Plenty of views of Big Four along the way, lots of streams and scenery and I'm planning on returning. (I would probably start in the National Forest area next time, as there's not much to see until that point. But if I happen to bring my single-speed with fat tires, I'd go ahead and try for the actual Mountain Highway loop.)

I was a bit tired but worse than the climb (about 2000' feet) was the heat. Plus was a lack of water along the ride and back at the start. And I was hot my car, which has broken air conditioning and (again) worse is the amazing amount of solar gain is has.

Hitomi didn't go, though next time she must... We were riding the "Tour de Pierce" instead, which turned out to be equally as hot but more miserable due to a lack of shade and a surprising lack of facilities, such as "water stops" except at one station 17 miles from the start. You can see pictures from Hitomi's blog; pictures she uploaded in realtime using her cellphone features.

Hint: If you haven't bought local strawberries yet, and you're in Washington, they're ripe and ready to be incorporated into dessert. Or eaten fresh. After six months of crappy Californian imported strawberries (pulpy unripened flavourless overgrown fruit) we now have our local crop to enjoy.

From a route standpoint, one of the enigmatic parts of "Tour de Pierce" was although we got tantilizingly close to downtown Tacoma, which despite its reputation is actually kind of interesting, the route ended up going north ajacent to Port of Tacoma. It'd be like having a King County tour that only went through parts of the Duwamish area or Interlaken rather than got you to bike through the Seattle Waterfront.

And actually, a lot of the 50-mile route seemed to be selected specifically for collecting miliage, rather than any particular scenic value. Whatever scenery there was might have happened by accident. Maybe it was the heat making me cranky?

I'm not a route expert but this is what I would have done. Map the nicest areas to ride in the vincity, the ones with the most scenery or vegitation or whatever. Pick among the roads that connect those areas. Calculate milage for various routes. Chose a variety of distances for these routes. Anyway, it doesn't seem hard to me. As it turns out, it was put on by the government who I guess don't have many cyclists employed.

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I joined a fairly elite group of riders yesterday on a ride I wasn't quite ready for: 7000' of climbing over 115 miles. One rider ("John") held the record for Seattle to Spokane (285 miles, in 13 hours), one rider recently did a 600km ride over 4 mountain passes. And the ride leader wasn't a slouch either, one of these bearded old guys who's probably spent more time in the saddle than I've been alive.

Coming up from Ohanapecosh in the southeast corner of Mount Rainer National Park, ascending to Cayuse Pass and Chinook Pass in the rain, the temperature dropped from about 60 to 40 degrees. I was feeling just fine, hardly even tired, just wet and cold in my hands and feet. I managed to get ahead of most of the group, in fact. Then heading east on Highway 410, it quickly warmed up and the scenery transitioned from forests and snow patches to desert canyons. With a strong tailwind, even on the flats, sustaining 24-26 miles per hour was pretty easy, as we followed the Naches River into the Yakima Valley.

But then I found the group had me beat. Slowly I was falling away from the pack. One of the riders came back and pulled me back. We kept together, but I wasn't so confident anymore. I wasn't keeping up!

And then I "flatted" soon on the turn off to White Pass. The ride leader assisted. I learned an important lesson about embedded rock shards in tires: Apparently small pieces of rocks actually wiggle their way through the rubber surface of a tire and can be eventually pushed into the tube causing punctures. He removed a dozen or so of these pieces from my tire and suggested I "flat" and inspect my tires after every long ride. (I also learned what pump to buy.)

I rode ahead. The tremendously helpful tailwind turned into a nasty headwind and energy-wise I wasn't doing so well. I was riding alone and could have used a pack to save my energy. I ate furtively: Calorie Mate and chips. The temperature felt about 80 degrees on the pavement and I really could have used some sugary food. But lunch was a few more miles up the road.

Luckily, I found myself arriving for lunch just a few minutes later of the other riders. I don't think I could have stomached a hamburger and fries preceeding the climb back, so I settled on pie and ice cream. I should have gotten more food, but I had plenty of bars, but again I needed more carbs and sugar. (Why didn't I pack some onigiri?) And so with a significant headwind, the climb to the pass was brutal. I stopped every mile or less to rest.

The decent was obviously easy, but there was a little climb (300' back to Ohanapecosh) in the last few miles. I was delighted to be back at the car.

In some strange way, it was wonderful to discover my limit, and I really started to respect those other riders with me who made this ride look easy. And I was pleased with my performance at the beginning and middle of the ride, knowing I just have to eat a bit better, cycle just a bit more, and sustain to the finish. John, who I drove back to his home in Sumner, paid me a compliment on how well I did on that initial climb.

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My dad sent me this link on a Water Fueled Car by a Japanese company. See also this video.

Coincidentally, I see this "news" already been ridiculed by nerds who know better on Slashdot. (Feel free to add your own Haiku to the discussion.)

My father, mother, and sisters all seem to have a gullibility gene. Somehow I was born without it. I've seen all of these people exploited. My older sister was giving thousands of dollars away to a fellow Mother Mary cult member. Apparently you can buy friends. And this was after getting involved in an expensive pyramid scheme leaving her in debt. My mother goes off to the witch doctor, spending thousands on scientifically questionable health treatments. Though she has gotten better, it's hard to say what percentage of those treatments had any non-placebo effect. My younger sister was sexually exploited with the same cult my older sister was in. And my father sends me books describing questionable financial schemes (like one from Robert G. Allen) and engines that violate the laws of physics and books on water crystals, which have pretty pictures, but have questionable credibility.

Growing up I got it hammered into my head by Tim to Acknowledge Reality. Perhaps life is a little bit more plain for me but whatever.

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31 is a good number. It's a prime number, among other things.

I ate some nice cake, drank some nice tea, and watched Mushishi.

I wish Hitomi was here.

I'm not sure what's in store for this year. I hope some of the catamaran is built. I'd like to go on some nice bicycle rides. I want to kayak to a nice spot to picnic.

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I was listening to NPR (KUOW) on my way home from a silent movie I saw at the Paramount Theater -- a silent movie accompanied by live The Mighty Wurlitzer and a few chatty girls in the audience. Anyway, bleeding-heart liberal NPR has a local call-in program which discusses Seattle government issues or actually any issue in a local context called "The Conversation". Hitomi laughs about how annoyed the host gets with all the flaky callers who constantly derail things. Loveline, a past favorite show of mine, was co-hosted by Adam Carolla who took joy in making fun of the "world's worst callers" he said, which made the show entertaining for me. Ross Reynolds tolerates the callers a bit more than he should.

Anyway, "The Conversation" focused on how effective the desegregation by-busing program was in Seattle, which I guess started in the late 1970's till about now, and was soliciting experiences and opinions from those who experienced it.

Pretty much everyone who called in was in favor of attending more diverse schools and thought that cultural diversity was important to their education. I agree that being with a variety of cultures and people with different economic status (rich through poor) is nice. But why was it not so good?

I was bussed from my first days of Kindergarten till High School graduation. Mostly I was "convinced" (or my parents were) to travel to far-away schools in depressed neighborhoods (i.e. the Central District) because those schools had the "honors" or "advanced" or "gifted" programs, rather than simply bussed because I was to whiten up a black school. But these programs were no doubt deliberately placed in minority communities to diversify the school. And though I was somehow "diversifying" the school population as a whole, the classes I were in were mostly motivated (smart?) white or Asian and a handful of motivated black students.

I can't say that busing was a success at diversifying the schools I was at. Rather, it never felt like integration would ever work, unless you got rid of any "tiers" in class difficulty. I recall teachers talking about removing "honors" classes. But even in honors I was often bored at school. And I wouldn't learn much in the "regular" classes. How could a teacher lead a class with students with a wide range of interest? Until they can figure that out--perhaps by having more teachers?--classes need to be broken up by student ability.

On the whole, I can't say busing was a success, at least from my perspective. It appeared desegregated on paper but in reality it wasn't.

Perhaps some people would call in with positive experiences? Several of the KUOW callers talked about what specifically was valuable about the experience. What callers I heard brought up "getting to know the Asians" and how that improved their experience. Of course I too met the Asians, because poor or not their parents expect them to study and stay out of trouble. I even had a crush on a few of the Asian girls. Maybe when I saw those Asian girls studying really hard, they'd fall for somebody who was good at math? None of the callers brought of having "African-American" friends, though I knew and talked with several in my honors classes. I felt sorry for them since their fellow blacks treated them like traitors: I guess they got called "Oreos" for being black on the outside, white on the inside.

None of the callers also brought up how cliquish and segregated schools were on the interior. Maybe my experience was unusual? I doubt it and the audience probably was the typical liberal crowd that says they'd feel more at peace having their kid around "other races," but as it turns out don't actually interact with them. I guess there's a certain bit of guilt or duty expected for whitey.

Besides callers sharing stories of busing, it's news that Seattle is in fact ending their busing programs. All schools are, on orders from the Supreme Court. What is the school administration going to do? Maybe the administration is relieved they have a valid excuse to spend so much energy on busing programs or balancing ethnic percentages, etc. Maybe the parents are pleased their kids won't be bussed across town. They're going to focus on "neighborhood schools" which will "hurt" the diversity. Though I didn't hear the end of the radio program, the "hack" seems to be to encourage more economic diversity by keeping seats available at magnet schools for poor kids, i.e. provide busing for those students eligible for "reduced price school lunch".

If (when?) I have children they're probably going to go to Seattle public school. Honestly, I wouldn't care if the neighborhood school population was 100% Blond Kids or 100% Jheri Curl Kids, as long as it was a good place for them to learn.

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I've been keeping up with my cycling. Hitomi was gone to Anime North (Toronto) and the weather's been fine. I spent Saturday riding to five different movie theaters for five different films at SIFF: A personal record for movies watched in one day? Sunday, I got Kevin to ride sixty miles, some of it quite hilly, and he did an adequate job. Monday I visited my parents and went to the Kubota gardens for the first time.

Tuesday, although Hitomi had just returned, I went out (again!) to my usual Tuesday night ride. The weather's finally gotten good. And I went to another movie that night.

I led a Seattle Bicycle Club ride last Wednesday. I was asked by the ride coordinator to lead, although I hadn't been on more than a few rides, and actually wasn't a member. (I did send in my dues a few weeks back.) The ride was a success. Here was the route. Our club did an interesting thing I think Cascade should do as well. At every corner, we had the rider behind me stay behind to make sure the remainder of the group made a turn. I would shout "Corner!" (actually I politely asked somebody) and somebody stayed behind. Usually what happens is the ride leader has to wait after every light and turn for everybody else to arrive, but instead I could keep going without concern.

Thursday was a day of rest. Plus, I wanted to actually see my wife before she left on a trip. Unfortunately, Thursday for Hitomi was mostly packing.

Friday, bought an oyster knife by Dexter Russel. Dexter Russel makes commercial-grade kitchenware. I have one of their knives I bought at a fishing store for my kayak trip a few years back. Hitomi wanted bought an oyster knife for her trip for consuming oysters on the beach, obviously. And later that day, I looked at Santoku Knives by the same company. For some reason I want to buy some new knives, though the knives I have are still adequate (actually Henckles), there's something exotic about Japanese-style cutlery. And I really like the utilitarian look and quality that goes into commercial products.

Saturday was another movie day, though this time I only went to three movies. Maybe sometime I'll write a couple of reviews? For foreign movies, I really like Asian movies the best. Even if an Asian movie isn't so good story-wise, it's usually aesthetically pleasing. I got back early to cook dinner and prepare food for an ambitious ride Sunday.

The initial plan was to ride about 80 miles inside of Mount Rainer Nat' Park, for a total of 8,000 feet of climbing. The weather unfortunately did not cooperate, so we turned back earlier. Most of the group ascended just the first 4,000 feet, from outside of the park to the Paradise visitor center. The visitor center was just a few hundred feet under snow level, under fog, and under rain. Although the ascent was surprisingly easy, the descent was difficult in the cold. Downhill was steep, requiring careful control of speed while maintaining muscle control of the hands and legs. Speedy controlled descents require leaning, which are difficult cold. Under a rain jacket and knit hat, I was listening to music which kept my morale up. Eventually, it got less steep and warmer and less rainy.

We all had a slice of pie and returned home.

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There's something about cycling and cycle commuters in general that brings out the best (worst?) in poor taste.

SBTWD_sm

I understand the artist is trying to make cyclists look ordinary and all but I don't think anybody under 40 years old would be caught dead wearing that shirt. I'm no artist and three gangly, unattractive dorks on a shirt is NOT something I would be proud to be associated with. If I saw those nerds on the road in real life, and I was driving, I'd probably be tempted to run them over, back up, and run them over again. My wife (who is an artist) asked her coworkers why bicycle clothing, especially jerseys and shirts for club rides are so ugly, apparently the world of cyclists and artists don't intersect.

And there's a reason why I've been on dozens of organized rides and haven't bought a jersey or t-shirt. Because they all suck.

People: Get one of those corporations (e.g. Adobe or Starbucks) with a team of talented artists to design a shirt. You may have to pay a few thousand to come up with a good design. But guess what? You'll sell more jerseys and make that money back. Let's make cycling look cool again.

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Interesting debate on bicycle lanes in Portland, actually a response to another article, which places the blame of several cyclist deaths on a combination of laws which require cyclists to unsafely position themselves at intersections.

I won't go into detail about the specific issues, some Oregon-law specific. Suffice it to say, it's often safest to ignore the law and use common sense. Don't pass vehicles on the right side, especially at intersections, is rule #1. (This is the corollary of "pretend you're invisible".)

Speaking of bicycle lanes, there's of course a number of problematic areas in Seattle where it's really not safe to use that lane, especially at intersections. One is a lane going northbound on to University Bridge where some unfortunate cyclist was plowed under by a truck turning right. (See rule #1.) Since there's two lanes of traffic going downhill, position yourself in the middle of the right lane, not bicycle lane, and so traffic turning right would have to either pass in front of you or stay behind.

Rule #2 is avoid bicycle lanes where you can get hit by a car door. Seattle has a few "door prize" lanes. Remember kids: On street parking is not only an automobile subsidy, it can kill you too.

Rule #3 is avoid bicycle lanes that continue on to nowhere. The intersection south on Greenlake Way intersecting NE 50th Street has a single bicycle lane which seemingly projects off to Kidd Valley, and through that intersection is no space for a cyclist with the adjacent traffic lane. Rather than negotiate a tricky merge, just take the second lane, which disappears in 100 feet or so and becomes a bike lane.

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I had originally planned to ride with the Cascade Bike Club on Saturday, but somehow the description of their ride put me off. They were planning an 80 mile bicycle ride with no food stops and the post further explained that your bicycle should be in good condition (has had a tune-up in the past two years) etc. and the ride leader wouldn't leave the group to fix your flat. Also carry your own money and be prepared to get yourself home. And so forth.

I think it's fine you have common-sense rules, but once you start reminding people to be responsible over and over, it seems a little condescending. And it certainly is not fun to assume if something goes wrong to you or someone else, they're simply abandoned.

Seattle Bike Club's rides are less popular and so less people show up. We had about 10 riders. They say that 2-10 riders is best since: It's easier to remember people's names. Less frequency of mechanical trouble. It's easy to keep track of each other.

The ride yesterday was a 75 mile loop from Fall City to the city of Snohomish through the Snoqualmie Valley. The ride was mostly flat an on mostly low-traffic roads. I saw about 100 other bicycle riders out, mostly people on club or group rides.

I'm definitely going to be doing this ride again, hopefully with Kevin, to get his riding mileage up.

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