40 posts tagged “cycling”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I took this route back in March 12th, 2007. I was visiting California on business and had some time on Sunday for a ride around Cupertino.
March 9th, 2008, two cyclists were killed on a similar route. An officer coming from the opposite direction, asleep at the wheel apparently, crossed a double yellow line and struck cyclists riding in the shoulder. In a car, your chances of surviving such an accident are much greater...
Given the amount of miles I cycle, what are my odds of getting killed on the road cycling? And should I "give up" and switch back to kayaking, hiking, running or something else potentially safer? The worst thing that could happen to me kayaking on Greenlake is likely hypothermia. Hiking is obviously risky as well: falling, getting lost, getting in an accident to the trail head. Runners get hit all the time.
For our short (6 day) stay in Vietnam, Hitomi and I were on a 4 day tour with Sinh Balo to tour the Mekong Delta.
The tour included a driver (driving the SAG wagon) and an English-speaking bicyclist would lead our group. We had an excellent time, but I won't detail the specific trip itself too much, I just had the following thoughts on cycling in Vietnam.
Traffic in Vietnam
One of the first concerns you have as a cyclist is of course safety and when going to a foreign country it's not just (at all?) a matter of understanding the rules of the road, but following the actual practice of traffic.
Apart from occasional stop lights, traffic would continuously flow seemingly without concern of volume or density. Vehicles would freely pass each other onto oncoming traffic. Horn noises would be exchanged constantly as part of passing etiquette. There were tens of motorbikes for each car and left turning, right turning, and forwarding moving waves of them would weave around each other. And as well, because of no sidewalks, large numbers of pedestrians were really part of the traffic flow as well. Let's not also forget the innumerable cyclists, some of them pulling large trailers or what have you, and huge farm trucks. Really what was intimidating was how closely vehicles moved together but there weren't too many people speeding. Car and truck drivers had to always be paying attention, because the road ahead was very rarely open for more than a hundred meters.
Ironically, I felt pretty safe in Vietnam, because it wasn't 99% cars and 1% other traffic. It was maybe 85% motorbikes, 8% cars, 2% trucks, and 5% bicyclists and pedestrians. And most motorbikes went 25-30 miles per hour, and as a 15-20mph cyclist I wasn't completely outclassed. In the cities, I could fold into the motorbike traffic quite easily.
Christmas day, I rolled through the center of town with our ride leader Ngi. Other motorbikes were impressed that a foreigner such as myself could blend in so seamlessly with the traffic.
Roads in Vietnam
We were riding in the Mekong Delta, mostly, which meant aside from bridges over canals, we were on flat surfaces. Roads were relatively flat, though, as the pavement was never that smooth or, worse, hard clay and large rocks. Most major roads were being repaired or rebuilt. With my 23mm tires, I had 4 flats, mainly from the slamming my tires and wheels took. Luckily, there was always some motorbike shop just around the corner capable of repairing my tube for less than a dollar. (Incidentally, some major intersections in Ho Chi Minh City had roadside motorbike mechanics staked out, with a tub of water, spare tires, and a toolkit. With the thousands (millions?) of passing vehicles, it was fairly good odds someone would run into trouble.)
Why 23mm tires? Well, I brought along my road bicycle (Ritchey Break-Away) and with larger tires the wheels won't fit in the case. But I ought to have spent some money on 28mm heavy-duty tires and gone through the trouble to change them at the hotel. Since you're never going to find good pavement anyway, you might as well pack heavy-duty tires for comfort. Bring a good pump as well, as 7 bars of pressure (100 psi) is hard to come by from those motorbike shops.
All the construction I assume is because the local economy is taking off there and thus the need for better and wider roads.
Expect a lot of fine dust and sand crossing construction areas. Dust collects on your chain and bicycle parts. Locals helpfully douse their adjacent sections of road with water, which does cut down on dust. Some people wear masks.
Places to Ride
The tour took us to the best places to ride, I assume. My favorite was riding on an island on a 6-foot wide "road" through farms, the road under a canopy of various fruit trees.
Without many hills, if you're riding in the Mekong Delta, you're mostly looking at rice paddies, fruit trees, temples, and buildings in town. It's a delta! We did get to experience some hills in the Upper Mekong.
Riding in Vietnam, even in Winter, is hot and the shade is welcome relief. So, I preferred shady routes. One particularly nice stretch took us along 6' wide canals ("local streets") on even narrower roads. Hundreds of small bridges with no railing -- don't fall over crossing! -- make it a little scary at first. Expect to be spotted by children in their homes, shouting "Hello!" to you, especially if you look like a tourist. Oftentimes you don't actually see the children through the thicket, but somehow they see your helmet and jersey or large nose. Teenagers don't say "Hello" but you'll get laughed about if there's a pack of them.
When and How to Ride
Riding really hard during the middle of the day is likely to give you heat stroke, so ride early or late. We were with a couple who weren't interested in early departure, unfortunately. Such is the nature of group trips.
I found that riding at 14-16 miles per hour was probably the optimal. You develop a significant head wind but, assuming you're in decent shape, you don't get too sweaty. Bring gloves and a hat. I didn't ride with a helmet always and instead I rode with a wide brimmed hat for shade.
I liked having clipless pedals since when you're pedaling over rocky areas they give you better control. Consider bringing your own pedals and shoes if you're touring with a company's bicycle. I was considering those Shimano bicycle sandals, which would have been nice since I was always wearing sandals anytime off the bicycle.
Food and Lodging
I guess a lot of warnings go out about not eating fresh vegetables in Vietnam, but on the tour I they were put in front of us every meal, so we had them anyway. I found southern cooking was fairly sweet and not very salty, and if you sweat a lot you need to eat more salt. The German couple we were with made a fuss about salt causing high blood pressure, but you'll get headaches and feel sick without some sodium.
The nicest place we stayed was called a "homestay" by our guide but was probably more accurately described as a "pension" or in Japanese "minshuku". These you find out of the cities, which are nicer for riding, in my opinion. In cities, the hotels always seemed sterile and minimalist. All the places we stayed at lacked any wall or alarm clock, which is strange, so bring your own clock. All the hotels we stayed at had Westerns or other Asian tourists eating breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Expect lots of French bread and fried eggs for breakfast, with spreadable cheeses, bland ham or wieners; or alternatively rice "gruel" or noodles.
Fresh fruit is always in season, though not always the same fruits. Mango was ready, along with pineapple, "dragon fruit", bananas, and several local fruits I did not learn the names of. Expect to eat fruit for dessert. We didn't try too many local desserts; most Western desserts seemed overly sweet.
Tourist Destinations
During the tour, we went to a gator farm, a hill overlooking the Cambodia border, various Khmer temples, fish farms under people's floating homes, farmers' wholesale markets on the water, an enclave of Muslim Vietnamese, various ferries, humongous roadside kilns baking bricks, and numerous roadside karaoke/refreshment stops. Speaking of karaoke, it is perfectly acceptable to sing karaoke at night, outside, amplified by loud speakers.
Thoughts on a Return to Vietnam?
A tour guide, or at least ground transportation like a car is necessary for getting comfortably out of Saigon. So, join a tour, but if you can afford it, go alone with a dedicated, small group.
Start cycling at 6AM, if you are going for any distance. Though breakfast is usually worth spending some time enjoying, take an after lunch nap instead.
The North is allegedly quite rainy and cold (cool?) during New Year's, so I'm not sure a tour in the North would be a good idea still, but some more varied terrain would have been nice. The only major climbing I did was a 400-meter-high nob along the Cambodian border, where the flat part of Vietnam turns into wild hills.
Other than a few comfort issues and tube punctures, I really enjoyed my trip. But one more tip: Bring a set of earplugs for the evening, just in case you're across the street from karaoke party.
Someplace in Taiwan a week or so ago in 2007, my odometer turned over 2000 miles. For me it was significant, since it was first time I've ever ridden a bicycle so much in a year.
To get my 2500 miles, I have to add in mileage from my other (singlespeed) bicycle (bought in September) another 400 miles. And I rode at least 100 more miles on each bicycle before I had an odometer for either.
2500 miles is close to 170-200 hours on the bicycle. This seems like a lot, though not so significant considering how long the average American is in front of the television, at around 1000 hours a year. (And 250 hours is a lot less than how long I'm online every year.)
I managed an average of 50 miles a week.
I don't commute, so all those miles was for pleasure or short trips in the city, say to the video store or to visit friends.
I'm pretty happy for my first year of serious riding.
Today was my first Critical Mass Ride. I've been meaning to go on the ride, but somehow I've had schedule conflicts all year.
It's been cold, nearly freezing in Seattle at night. It's also dark around 4:30PM. But the ride still goes on.
I joined a group going downtown at the UW, in Red Square. People were nice, people had nice bicycles and camaraderie was evident. It felt like a regular Cascade Bike Club event except people were about 30 years younger on average. There were a lot more fixxie bicycles as well.
A lot of people liked my singlespeed Casserroll. The fenders on it stand out especially at night with the lights on it, the hammered facets somewhat resemble a disco ball's surface. There were a lot of well-loved frames, some more than 20 years old. Everyone had a lot of pride in their ride, to use a little alliteration.
Getting to downtown our group of 30-40 or so riders mostly obeyed traffic signals but it was a little difficult. We headed across University Bridge and along Mercer, down 5th and to Westlake Center. With all the traffic and some people obeying and disobeying rules, the group was chopped up a bit. It was 5:30PM and traffic was heavy, making it actually easier to bicycle without worrying about cars.
Arriving at Westlake Center, there were around a hundred or so riders. Some bicyclists were older, some were riding unusual bicycles, some were women. Beers and flyers were being passed around, people were chatting, music from the nearby Merry-go-Round was playing Christmas music. People had signs saying "Honk if you Love Bicycles". I was cold. The main ride eventually started.
Hundreds of cyclists taking off in a pack downtown is pretty amazing, especially at night with all the flashing lights and all. The group moved fairly slowly, but did not stop. To keep the flow of bicyclists moving, if the light would turn red, bicyclists would block cars from entering the intersection on a green. And so I would later discover most honking was not encouragement from cars, but from mostly upset or irate drivers trying to move through. Bicyclists were breaking the law, obviously. But really, it seemed more efficient to move everyone through as a group than divide up the mob. I guess if the police had been paying attention (there was no sign of them except once I saw a police car at an accident scene) there might have been mass arrests or what-not.
I heard that last week, the group actually bicycled onto the Viaduct. The route this week was not on any major freeway, but still problematic to some cyclists, like those on tall bikes, who had to take some steep hills. The route was a loop, at least in the beginning. Back at Westlake, down to the waterfront, we headed back into downtown but again on a very steep cobblestone road. Obviously, the route was not thought out. It was too steep for my single-speed bicycle, for sure. Then, though I heard talk of heading to a particular watering hole on Capitol Hill for some libations or the like, the mob wanted to do yet another loop in downtown, down and up another steep hill. It was cold and riders weren't obviously into vigorous hill-climbing. Critical Mass Rides aren't organized, which is good in some sense and bad in others, obviously.
A couple of highlights: Seeing hundreds of cyclists descending a hill with all their blinking and strobing lights all going at different rates. Chummy guys passing around seasonal micro-brews in knit hats. A rider with a Bakfeit with his son inside a covered tent watching in the front, watching a DVD during the ride. A cute Asian girl with silver streamers on her old pink Scwinn lady's frame. Some guy carrying enormous speakers on the front of his bike -- but please better music next time. The occasional happy motorist who didn't mind the wait and could enjoy the show.
I left with some riders heading to Ballard, mid-forties, veteran-looking types who also were cold. My right foot was cold through the cleats, and my finger tips were frosty. I was wearing fleece lined jeans which, interestingly, made me tired at the pedals. The two guys gave me pointers to Dexter, and I took it hard up, and hard up Stone Way, Greenlake and back home.
Hitomi had dinner going and I was cold and hungry. It was a welcome return.
Mike and Ian came by soon after I returned home Friday. Ian has spent a large amount of money on Magic cards but does not seem to win as many games as he might. I won two out of three.
We later wandered over to Ballard, where I thought we might catch the night life. I thought first to check out Cupcake Royale, who put a decidedly gourmet and hip twist on the ordinary cup-cake. I liked what I got (orange frosting and vanilla cake) but would have to make a few more trips there to try some others. I can't say their cupcakes were as revolutionary as the superior desserts from Top Pot Donuts.
The place got close to closing and we left. If it were just Mike, I would have probably gone to a few more places, i.e. bars. Ian was tired and disinterested, obviously. Since the smoking ban, I don't mind going bars but need somebody to talk with, and I'm not friendly with strangers. I figured we could drop Ian off and Mike and I could go to the Wedgewood Tavern.
There, I lamented on how Ian can't get it together to make more of a business of his painting. And how specifically, to make money as a fine artist you have to sell really hard and cover a range of markets, e.g. make high-quality prints. Frankly, I don't see myself capable of that kind of salesmanship, and somebody like Ian lacks this ability. Mike was quick to defend Ian, pointing out how Ian is developing a collection of paintings, and we shall see how it goes.
Fortunately, for me to develop my career, all I had to do was go from Catdaddy to @mobile, stick up for myself at various occasions, and I make considerable money. I have Boon Hwang to thank for getting me started and supporting my career at different points. I do have my own talent, hard work, and deep interest in computers as well. If I were less timid and more motivated I could develop my own consulting business (or company?) full-time and possibly be successful at that.
I spoke to Mike about the sailboat business Tim is putting together, with some help from me. Hopefully the boat will be completed in due time, and this will be my next big thing. This may take years. So simultaneously, I do know well enough about how to run a software organization, or at least I know how not to run one based on prior experience, that perhaps I could get into management or something besides development. The way I see it, although individuals can develop really good software, single-person efforts means little unless there's a more functional organization around it.
About Mike's job: I do know a bit about what he does now, which is natural language processing for organization-specific search engines using a specialized scripting language. He alone seems to have mastered the intricate details, whereas other people use a higher-level tool that "writes" the underlying scripting language but does not allow for much customization.
Saturday, Hitomi had a all-day show at the Seattle Center. She's been busily making things to sell, as well as ordering vast quantities of T-shirts with her designs. This, the first of three shows this year, was quite slow, embarrassingly slow. Compared to last year's event, there were just a handful of interested people, and a lot of the traffic was actually from other booths. For what I believe is a waste of effort, I still help out carrying things and setting up and tearing down her booth and give up a day for her things.
Adding to the whole melancholy mood, I walked around the Seattle Center Fun Forest and nearby buildings, making mental notes of what things had changed over the years. My dad used to take me and often a friend to the "Fun Forest" and buy us an all-day ride pass, available on certain off-season times at discount rates. This time of year, most of the rides were shut down. The relatively new indoor arcade area had some incorporated the same carnival games that used to be outdoors elsewhere. The old 18-hole mini-golf course was removed and replaced with a shorter , less silly course. As a kid, I would also wander around the Center House and go buy food, candy or tchotskis at various stores; some have moved, some have gone, some surprisingly are still around.
I returned back to Hitomi's booth. I played on Hitomi's Nintendo DS until around closing. Near the end, it was almost completely dead, and the people and friends loitering in the neighboring booth set up chairs in front of their booth. A confused or thoughtless women wandered into our booth area and started talking to somebody in the neighboring booth, her butt just two feet in front of where I sat. "Get the fuck out of my booth!" I might have said. But obviously nobody was coming by, and we were obviously of no interest or notice to anybody.
Frankly, I get depressed thinking about holiday shopping, which could have resulted from my days at helping set up, tear down, and occasionally man booths for Steel Silhouettes.
Sunday, I had thought to spend the day with Hitomi, but Hitomi came up with yet more project stuff, so I went bicycling instead. It was cold and the road was icy in places, but other riders were cheerful and the sun was out. A little under of fifty miles did me some good, I hope. With about 40 riders, our speed was pretty uneven. One fellow, Ken, who almost killed me on last week's SBC ride, was sporting Zipp "Speed Weaponry" wheels, specifically a clincher wheel set which retails for about $2000. I think he picked the wrong ride.
