The aches and pains I felt as I struggled to be active again slowly decreased the harder I pushed. I tried so hard in December, harder in January, and now that it's March it's getting easier and more fun when the every moment. Here’s to more joy, more gentle and compassionate striving to improve, not matter where you are now.
Planning Ahead: Old West Scenic Bikeway
I’m super excited to ride the Old West Scenic Bikeway and the I plan to camp at Clyde Holliday State Recreation Area and bike from there! I’ll bike through the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Bates State Park, and the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site. More planning to come!
National and State Parks for Free
The Adventure Cycling Association is doing it again, bike to a national or state park for no entrance fee. What a great gimmick for the Adventure Cycling Association! They say registration begins in March….
Planning Ahead: Willamette Valley Oregon Scenic Bikeway
I’m starting to plan my 2021 biking goals. I want to try my hand at a solo-week long bike camping tour….annnd maybe even two. A goal like this is ambitious and requires training. One of the rides I’m looking at is the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway. I already rode on every stretch of this bikeway, and many of them several times. However, my route always happened to be planned for other reasons, and I never paid specific attention to the Bikeway itself. I’d like to ride this bikeway, for the sake of the Bikeway in nothing else. I’m in the early stages of planning, but this might be a 2 or 3 night trip (134 or 174 miles, depending on route), and might involve me sleeping in a tent or in at BnB or motel. More planning to come.
Camping Spot Ideas:
Sleep/Wake Cyclers 2021
June 12, 2021
I just happened to be mindless scrolling Facebook, like you do, and fell upon this new fundraiser. This is the first year the Hypersomnia Foundation is trying this sort of fundraiser, and I am so ready fo support. It’s like they know me! I’m not officially in the club yet, but I emailed the organizer and asked to join.
Bozeman
Buffalo Bill State Park
D'oh Nuts!
Biking the Dark Heart of Loveland
Fit 3D Update: February 2021
Many benefits of cycling can be grouped into health. Next to how it feels and the joy it brings, this is the main reason I ride. My riding has dropped significantly in recent months, so I am happy to see the health impacts have been minimal. I am still perfectly OK.
I purchased a couple of Dexascans to use up health FSA money and the purchase came with a year of 3D body imaging. One cool thing about the 3D scan is that I get instant measurements of every body part. I have all the details I need to make a custom outfit!
Loveland to Fort Collins
Urban road realities
I am more sympathetic than most cyclists when it comes to obstructing bike lanes. Most cyclists oppose any and every time a bike lane is occupied by anything other than a bike. I get it. I mean, the bike lane is a designated lane of traffic, just like a bus lane or a carpool lane. It shouldn’t be violated, even if it opposes the whole “share the road” philosophy. At the same time, cars often need to stop to talk on the phone, make a quick stop, or deal with a hazard. There are many legit reasons a vehicle needs to stop, and urban bike lanes nearly always eliminate the option of a shoulder. Bike lanes also tend to be on smaller, residential roads with street parking. Cars turning into traffic don’t have good visibility and often need to nose into the bike lane to see. I get it. It’s OK.
There are exceptions, and Washington Driver BNY3804 is one of them. You see, BNY3804 opted to park on the north shoulder, when the south should has street parking. There is no excuse, except for a mechanical failure. I’m pretty sure BNY3804 just stopped for a delivery, because you see this sort of quick stopping with Amazon, Fedex, and UPS trucks all the time. Luckily this road had good visibility and I could safety bike around it.
When cars turn in no turn lanes
So this happened the other day. A car made a left hand turn in a no-turn lane. It wouldn’t be that big of a violation, except they turned into my path. Without signaling. Luckily, the Postal van in front of them made a left hand turn while signaling, so I was already on the alert, and already slowed down. However, I didn’t actually think the car would turn because it waited until the very last moment to turn its wheels. I’m not sure if the driver even noticed me. What you can’t tell from this video is how dangerous this is for a cyclist. Unlike cars, cyclists don’t have the braking power cars do in the rain. The wet road and sharp breaking caused my tires to skid and my rear will to kick up and swerve off of the ground. I am an experienced cyclist, so I new to hammer my brake levers with caution. A less experienced cyclist probably would have hammered hard on the brakes which would have sent the bike into an uncontrollable skid. Once the bike is skidding uncontrollably, the options would be to either hit the car or fall to the ground. Usually falling is the best option, but I wouldn’t recommend it downtown where drivers are looking at their phones and might not even notice something lower than their grill. I’d hate to be run over after nearly hitting a car and crashing my head on the concrete. I’m not sure what I could have done here, other than stop at the green light.
If the bike lane didn’t exist, I would have been biking in the farthest left lane, which had sharrows before this lane was made last summer. Because I would have been biking with traffic, I would have been behind these turning vehicles and not next to them. I would have been safe. It is not intuitive for a car to make a left hand turn on a green light and have another vehicle in the way. I don’t blame the drivers here. Downtown driving is confusing. There is a lot going on and the drivers have to notice one tiny “no turn” sign at the light level. THis is the first intersection with a “no turn” sign after several others. I might have easily done the same thing. I don’t blame the drivers for this hazard. I blame poor traffic planning and poor road design.
This is why I am a cyclist who tend to vote against the cycling safety “improvements” pushed by the city. I am 100% for protected cycling lanes, but Seattle hasn’t figured out what those are. Seattle’s “solutions” are inconsistent across the city. THe city depends entirely on painted roads, cones, and signs. Maybe urban planners can absorb more data in traffic than I can. I’d rather a simpler road structure with fewer colors and signs.