Just Another Day in Portland

Another day, another police sting

I approve of following the law. In fact, I encourage it. I stop at every stop sign unless it is unsafe to do so.*

*ok, there is ONE stop sign I roll through - SE Umatilla and the Oregon Pacific RR. I look both ways for trains first. That intersection sees 1-2 trains per day maybe 3 days out of the week.

I think bicycles should obey all traffic control devices (the law permits going through a red light when it won't change - like when the loop detectors don't "see" the bike), obey signs, markings, warnings, etc. Speeding is rarely an issue for bikes, except on long or steep downhill grades - yes, I believe bikes should obey that. No, I don't always practice it, but I'm willing to accept the consequences of my actions. I ALWAYS slow down around children and animals - they are too unpredictable, and the risk of a collision is too great.

Ok, so we've established that I think all bikes should obey the law. This morning is ridiculous, however - by reports from cyclists, there were 5-6 motorcycle officers at Ladd's Circle issuing tickets to cyclists who failed to stop for the stop signs on the traffic circle. Let's ignore the fact that traffic circles by their very nature work best without stop signs (something Portland hasn't figured out yet). Why 6 motorcycles? Why here? Ladd's is one of the safest areas in the city, traffic-wise. Reportedly, some neighbors complained about all the cyclists running the stop signs at the traffic circle. Fine, send *A* motorcycle cop, NOT 6.

That's 5 officers who normally perform traffic duties, who aren't busting speeders, or camped out at one of the 10 deadliest intersections in Portland. Shouldn't one of these guys be watching for people who run the red light at SE 82nd and Powell? Or how about busting speeders on Sandy? Illegal turns on red? Or patrolling east 122nd Ave, which has 5 of the top 10 crash sites in the last 5 years?

Someone in charge at the PPD isn't using his or her resources effectively, and in a city that doesn't have a large enough public safety budget and can't hire enough cops to fill vacancies, that's NOT acceptable.

Ok, soapbox time over.

Yowza - I need to be biking!

Ok, still not getting out and about enough.

Currently averaging about 9 miles per day. This morning, I rode my standard 12.3 miles into work, in a little under 65 minutes. Average speed 11.4 mph, top speed 28.1 mph. The weather was nice, if a bit cold, and the ride is was smooth and easy for the most part.

Yesterday I got my tent, footprint and camp pad. Another (ouch) $300 spent. The good news is that this equipment will work fine for the various events I plan on doing this year. Yay! Reusable for a good number of years as long as I take care of the equipment.

The next Milwaukie TSP Update meeting (bike / ped workshop, that is) is coming up on May 5th at Milwaukie City Hall.

Back on the Bike - In April!

Ok, took 6 days off the bike. Didn't plan on it, 3 of those days were due to Gamestorm. Until I get a trailer, it's difficult to cart 80 lbs. of stuff back and forth from Clackamas to the airport.

So, now that I'm back on the bike, here are the stats:

This Morning:
12.50 miles @ 10.4 mph average
01:12:13 ride time, top speed of 26.2 mph
Weight: 245.5 lbs.

Overall:
94 days into the year
879.07 total miles (868.48 this time last year) - average 9.35 miles / day
83:13:00 total time in the saddle
Average speed 11.0 mph

Ok, so I'm not really losing any weight. I need to start measuring myself again, so I can see if this lack of weight loss is really because I'm replacing fat with muscle. (I hope so) Muscle tissue weighs twice as much as fat, so if you're building muscle you can sometimes drop waist sizes without dropping weight. Either that, or I need to start eating less.

The ride in today was leisurely. I enjoyed it, but I had to take a break at the midpoint because I was so sleepy. I most definitely need to get to bed earlier.

That's it for now - maybe more later.

Milwaukie TSP Bike / Ped Meeting #1

The Milwaukie TSP (Transportation System Plan) Update Bicycle and Pedestrian Workshop meeting was held from 10am to 12pm, Saturday, March 24th at Milwaukie City Hall in the City Council chamber. Here is an overview of that meeting:

Katie Mangle, planning director for the City of Milwaukie, started off with an overview of the process. The bike/Ped workshop for the TSP update consists of two (possibly 3 if required) meetings. The first meeting (March 24th) is to identify current problem areas in the city, errors in the provided maps of bicycle facilities and pedestrian sidewalks, and areas for improvement. The second meeting (probably in late April, TBA) will list proposed solutions developed by City staff and DKS Associates, the transportation firm hired by the city to help them through the process.

Katie also presented the Draft TSP Goals:

1. Balanced transportation system that provides travel choices
2. Reduce length of trips; manage congestion
3. Safety
4. Enhance Milwaukie's livability
5. Promote economic vitality
6. Develop context-sensitive design standards
7. Sustainability (environmental, economic, social)
8. Coordinate with other jurisdictions & be consistent with the city's Comprehensive Plan
9. Efficiently use available funds/monies to implement recommended projects
   

There were approximately 20 members of the public in attendance, who were nearly equally split between pedestrian and bike concerns. The group split into 2 working groups - I attended the bicycle portion. After 90 minutes of discussion, the two groups reassembled to summarize the information.

I delivered a list of map errors to Alan Snook, the transportation planner from DKS Associates who is working with the city. Overall, the map of existing bike facilities (bike lanes, shared lanes) was reasonably accurate, with some disagreement over the designation of north Linwood as "shared lane" and the omission of the relatively unknown multi-use path along the river behind the sewage treatment plant.

Brett Kelver, Assistant Planner for the city, facilitated. Brett is handling the bike side of things, and Ryan Marquardt (also Assistant Planner for the city) is focusing more on the pedestrian side.

Members of the public around the table took turns describing the bike issues currently in the city. The following items were discussed:

• No signage for the trail behind the sewage plant- Bike lanes on lower Linwood poor quality pavement, full of debris
• Curbs separating Linwood bike lanes prevent sweepers from cleaning the lanes
• Crossings of Johnson Creek Blvd. are problematic and hazardous
• Lake Road: one side is not bike-friendly
• No good east-west connections in southern Milwaukie
• Railroad Avenue totally unsuited for bikes, hazardous
• The 1997 plan only addressed a few problems, most still exist
• Lake at RR / Harmony / Linwood intersection: paint on bike lanes worn off
• Upper Linwood does not have continuous paved shoulders
• Storm drain at Linwood & King right in bike path on turn
• Homeowner placing "For Sale" sign in the bike lane
• Drivers not respecting bike lanes, parking in them, etc (esp. King / JCB / River Rd / Linwood)
• No enforcement of bike lanes - PD needs to ticket more
• SE 17th has lots of gravel & debris, bike lanes not continuous
• SE 17th & McLoughlin: loop detectors not sensitive enough, bike lane outboard of right-turn lane
• SE 17th & McLoughlin: sharp corner, cars drive into bike lane rather than taking it wide
• SE 17th & McLoughlin: crosswalk button more than 10 feet from bike lane behind safety fence
• SE 17th at 224: northbound cars off 224 do not stop
• Springwater Trail - bumpy, debris, pothole in Tideman Park, bad surface quality
• RR crossing at 21st & Adams dangerous, road surface bumpy
• Stop sign lying on ground at Springwater and Precision Castparts Corp. parking lot driveway
• Need better signage on Springwater Trail
• Pedestrian ramp from 3 Bridges to McLoughlin poorly designed, sharp corners make bicycling dangerous
• Need to coordinate with Portland for the areas that straddle the city / county line
• JCB: If bike lane line worn off, cars veer into bike lane and crowd bikes out
• Sellwood bridge (outside study area, but impacting the study area) needs bike issues addressed
• Upper Lake Rd (east) has lots of debris
• Need to repaint (restripe) bike lanes on Linwood, Harmony, King
• Bike hit by car on JCB west of 42nd Avenue
• Need more education and enforcement re: bike lanes
• Low-speed, low-use roads better solution than bike lanes - people don't feel comfortable on King / Lake
• Bike lanes are rarely clean and usually full of gravel and debris
• River Rd descent problematic for bikes, especially those trying to turn left (west) into Island neighborhood
• Need safe routes to schools, and between schools and parks
• Concern over future Trolley Trail, and connections between it, Riverfront Park, and McLoughlin

There was also discussion about the good things in Milwaukie, mostly centered around the 3 Bridges project.

When the group reassembled, the bicycle and pedestrian points were summarized. There was little overlap between the two groups, and no stated major conflicts between them.

Kaite Mangle then outlined the process that was expected to happen over the next couple months. The planners will take the comments from this meeting, create a list of proposed solutions / projects for the city to incorporate into the TSP, and get public comment on them at the second meeting. After that meeting, there will be an open house in late spring / early summer for additional public comment, and then the main advisory committee for the project will take those recommendations and create a plan to submit to the Milwaukie City Council for final approval.

Haulin to work

Well, I got in a bit quicker than normal today. I usually average about 11-12 mph on the way in to work. Today, however, it was 13.6 mph! Still not my record (16.5), but it's not likely I'll repeat that, since I don't have as much downhill as at the old place, and I usually ride into the wind at least part of the way. The 16.5 day was with a fierce tailwind the whole way. Oh, and on bald, thinner tires that were overinflated. Downhill. Both ways. Yeah, you know the drill.

Today:
Mileage: 12.8 miles
Top Speed: 28.8 mph
Average Speed: 13.6 mph
Time: 00:56:41
Weather: Mostly Dry, 43 degrees F

Year-to-Date:
Mileage: 829.58 miles (9.65 miles per day)
Average Speed: 10.7 mph
Total Time in Saddle: 78:35:30
Best Average Speed: 13.6 mph
Best Top Speed: 35.3 mph

Mileage Last Year on this Date: 824.97 miles

This weekend is Gamestorm, so it's not likely I'll get in any major rides, but you never know. I'm not running any games on Sunday, so that's always an option. I've done a 55-mile ride, so it's time to knock it up a notch - maybe 75-80 miles. We'll see.

This morning's ride felt good, and it was good to stress everything out just a bit. It's been a while since I really pushed myself the whole ride. Now it's time to think about pushing myself a little more often, maybe do some interval training. Also, it's time to think about a couple of the supported rides. The Monster Cookie Metric Century is coming up, as is RACC - Ride Around Clark County. Either of those would be nice to do, get riding with other cyclists.

I'd love to do more supported rides, but it gets expensive - anywhere from $15-$80 per ride. I mean, they're fully supported and all, hence the cost, but if you do more than a couple, it adds up quick. I'm already spending much too much this year as it is, with Cycle Oregon coming up. It's just so awesome that I'm going to do CO this year. The route is fantastic, it's the 20th year, so there will be all manner of special at this particular ride. It's going to be great. Yowza!

It HAS Begun (in the Mortal Combat voice)

Training has officially begun - I rode 55 miles yesterday, all within Portland / Milwaukie. About 1/3 of the way through the ride, I ran into the riders from Exchange Cycle Tours, and joined them on their ride to Kelly Point Park. What a great day for a ride!

The Usual:
Distance: 55 miles
Top Speed: ??? (the GPS says 87.7 mph, but I know that's not right)
Total Time in Motion: 05:01:22

Route: 97th & Lawnfield to I-205 bike path to Causey. Followed to Monroe, to Stanley, to King. King to 49th, then meander through the sub to 42nd and back to 55th to the Springwater Trail, then west into Sellwood. Follow the Springwater on the Willamette to the Hawthorne Bridge, then to SW 4th to Big Pink. Head back out around the tower to Broadway, and over the Broadway bridge to Interstate. Up Interstate to Marine Drive and Kelly Point Park. Then back out Marine Drive all the way to the I-205 bike path. Then south to home.

For the Year:
804.55 miles (9.47 miles per day, on average)
10.7 mph overall average speed
76:21:31 total time in the saddle
85 days into the year

At the rate I've been cycling, I'll cover 3,455 miles this year. Which means I need to step it up a notch, because I'm intending to ride at least 5,000 miles this year. This time last year, I was at 825 miles for the year. According to my schedule, I'm supposed to be at 1,169 miles right now. I'm down 344 miles, which is somewhat less than optimal. OTOH, a few weeks ago I was 500 miles down, so I'm pretty confident I will meet or exceed my scheduled mileage in another month.

Now if I can just start getting out to the gym, I'll have it made.

Still Spinnin'

Rode all over Milwaukie on Saturday - update on that to follow this evening. Good ride in this morning - it was wet, but not raining much, so my shoes didn't get half as dirty as they could have. Kind of windy, though. 12.34 miles on the way in - it's interesting how the GPS reads different every day depending on how long it takes to acquire the satellites and whether or not it loses signal along the way. Generally it reads between 12.3 and 12.4 miles each way if I take my most direct route.

679.38 miles this year, with a total time of 65 hours and 5 minutes in the saddle. I'm currently averaging 8.6 miles per day, which is almost as much as last year (8.91). At the rate I'm riding so far, even if I don't do any major rides this year I'll still ride more than 3,000 miles. I'm planning to do StP and CO, so that means I should be riding at least 4,000 miles this year, not counting my training rides.

Bikeportland.org posted an update on Dawn Slawta, the woman who collided with a car on February 7th of this year. She was in a coma, but apparently is now conscious and on the road to recovery. I hope she recovers quickly and fully. She's very lucky she wasn't killed - reportedly both Dawn and the motorist (Mark Grover) were inebriated (the Portland Mercury says they were both over the legal limit) and Dawn was not wearing a helmet or using lights (this collision was at night). To his credit, the motorist stayed at the scene and cooperated with the police. It's a sad statement about society that I feel the need to congratulate people who comply with the law, but I respect the fact that he did the right and responsible thing.

I've can't understand why anyone (over 12) would want to ride without a helmet, and especially in this day and age, why anyone would voluntarily ride without lights. This is just a general comment - I don't know the particulars of Dawn's situation, and it's easy to generalize if you aren't/weren't there. I've ridden without lights before, because when your battery dies at 2am and Tri-Met is no longer running, you have to get home somehow. Walking through, say.... North Portland at 2am (or Lents) is not an option for many people, especially for most women. I mean, I'm a 6', 250 lb. guy, I'm reasonably safe. Not so much for the 5'2" woman, and I know a number of them who bike.

Ride Report - March 13, 2007

This morning:
12.39 miles
12.1 mph average, 31.7 mph maximum
1:01:14 riding time
43 degrees F, dry pavement, dark/twilight

2007 Total-to-date:
554.14 miles (7.70 miles/day average)
10.6 mph overall average
53:15:50 total riding time

Felt good to be on the bike today. Had a burger and a couple of beers with Steph last night, talked about all kinds of stuff, and about StP and Cycle Oregon. Feels good to ride in general - maybe because I'm getting used to the new equipment, maybe just because the weather is getting marginally nicer again. Either way, feels good.

Ridin' Steady

Been a while since I posted, time for an update....

I haven't been riding as much as I'd like to these last few weeks, but I am back on the bike, and I've ridden 4 of the 5 days this week. I'm trying to make up my massive sleep deficit, and trying to reduce my caffeine intake. Well, I'm not succeeding that well on either count, but having a couple cups of coffee did make it easier to ride home the other day. The important things are that I'm still under 250 lbs and I'm riding again.

I'm now at 504 miles for the year, which is better than last year. I haven't ridden anything over 40 miles yet, but that'll probably change this weekend. The big change is that I now have clipless pedals and "proper" biking shoes. I didn't think I'd ever become "clipped in", but I find that I'd like any advantage I can get for my upcoming suicide ride (Cycle Oregon).

You know, I don't think I talked about that earlier in the blog - I'm doing Cycle Oregon this year, a 7-day fully supported ride, 481 miles long with 28,000' of elevation gain. Yes, I'm apparently insane. They say you should have goals, and yes, I apparently took that seriously. So, I decided to spend $800 of my hard-earned tax refund (ok, we decided - the spousal unit approved it) to try to kill myself riding up some of the most beautiful land God put on this green Earth. I'm really looking forward to it, and I know it'll be the ride of a lifetime and something I'll never forget. At 2,000 riders, it'll be somewhat smaller than Seattle to Portland, which has 9,000 riders, but still a pretty populous ride.

So, the stats:

This morning:
12.42 miles
12.3 mph average, 30.1 mph maximum
1:00:38 riding time
45 degrees F, wet pavement, overcast skies, no precipitation

2007 Total-to-date:
504.42 miles (7.42 miles/day average)
10.5 mph overall average
48:54:46 total riding time

Mechanical/Equipment changes:
New clipless pedals
New cycling shoes
New rain jacket
New saddle
New brake pads (rear)
New 1.5" reinforced road tires
Replaced broken spoke
Replaced frayed rear shift cable
Bike completely broken down, cleaned, and lubed

I will likely need a new wheelset, chain and cassette before Cycle Oregon. My bike is a 2004 Gary Fisher Wahoo, and currently has about 4,000 miles on it. I previously replaced the bottom bracket, chain rings and crankset, and I've gone through 2 sets of brake pads and a chain since purchasing it.

2004: ~100 miles
2005: ~400 miles
2006: 3022.03 miles
2007: 504.42 miles so far

This morning felt really good to bike. I did something I haven't done before - I rode with headphones. I kept them low enough that I could hear everything around me, and that seems to work ok. I even heard the Prius come up behind me on SE Umatilla, and those things don't make much noise. I didn't hear one of the cyclists come up behind me on the Springwater, but he didn't "on your left" me and I wouldn't have heard him normally anyway. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable enough with having headphones on to continue doing so, but it was nice riding today with my music. I probably freaked out the other cyclist, though, since when he passed me I was singing about eating people's brains (Jonathan Coulton's song Re: Your Brains, which is about a pack of zombies. Hillarious, click the link and take a listen).

Anyway, that's it for now...

The Late Long Haul

Well, the weekend only went sort of as planned. I made the MMR, but missed out on Meghan's bike move - I had to work longer than expected on Saturday, and was a little tired from the MMR. Riding 30+ miles to get a trailer, ride to the move, do the move, ride to the after-move party, ride to return the trailer, and ride home is do-able, but not when I got home at 5am and had only 3 hours of sleep.

Sorry Meghan - I'll do better next time, or skip the MMR.

The St. Velotine's Breakfast on the Bridge today was cool - I didn't get to stay long, just long enough to talk to Jonathan, Shawn, Steph (the "other" Steph) and Kirsty. Oh, and to drink a half-cup of coffee (that's the whole reason for stopping in the first place) ;-)

I'm now up to 332.7 miles for the year, with 32.4 hours on the bike. 245.5 pounds - at the moment I'm losing 2 pounds per week, but we'll see if that holds up after the next month. I hope so, if I can keep that up, I could be down to 190 by the time of Cycle Oregon.

200 miles

Well, I've got 205 292 miles so far for 2007. Next up, Meghan's bike move on Saturday!
Changed the mileage, found out my spreadsheet was only adding the first twenty rows - oops.

OUCH!

Well, I guess every year I need to have an accident on the bike, to remind myself that I'm still human or something. Today was that day - my first ever bike/bike collision. The funny thing is, I was just telling Steph the other day that I've never had a bike on bike crash. Well, I can't say that anymore.

I was riding westbound on the Springwater Trail, after passing Tideman Johnson nature area (which has been gutted by the sewer project - I hope it recovers this year), and had a good tail wind going. So, I decided to open it up a bit, and cracked it to about 27-28 mph. I was crossing the first of the three bridges over McLoughlin and Johnson Creek, catching up to a cyclist ahead of me and preparing to overtake and pass him on the left. All of a sudden, he started drifting to the center of the trail - so I drifted further left. He was slowing for the turn onto the ramp down to McLoughlin, which has a really sharp approach. I didn't really realize it at the time, and in any case I was now overtaking him by at least 20 mph and couldn't go any further left without going over the steep embankment. So I passed him on the right. Unfortunately, this was the instant when he made his right turn, and we had a spectacular glancing collision which I tried to avoid by braking - no such luck. I did, however manage to lock the front wheel and go end over the handlebars.

The bikes are ok. The other rider is uninjured. I'm ok but a bit shaken up, having had a 20mph crash with steep embankments on either side and a sharp drop to a busy road only 15 feet past where I landed. I'm alive! I remember my last thought before the crash was "uh oh - this is gonna hurt". Fortunately it was a very mild crash, and not at all like the one I had last year in February where I wiped out at the Salmon Fountain in Tom McCall Waterfront Park. The other rider and I pointed out our missteps to each other, made sure we were both ok, and apologized to each other, and went on our way. Man, cyclists are so much more polite than drivers. Then again, neither of us was seriously hurt and both bikes were virtually undamaged. Maybe totally undamaged - I haven't had the chance to closely examine my Wahoo, but she appears to be ok and nothing was out of alignment. I rode another 6 miles to work with no issues.

Details:

Crash Location: 45 degrees, 27 minutes, 34.6 seconds N latitude, 122 degrees, 38 seconds, 30.8 seconds W longitude. Roughly near the intersection of SE Clatsop and McLoughlin, about 10m east of the east end of the Springwater bridge over McLoughlin.

Crash Time and Direction: Approximately 7am, January 30th, 2007. I was overtaking the other rider, both of us were westbound on the trail.

Conditions: Dark but not full night. Visibility clear to about 20', diffuse out to about 100'. No clouds, dry pavement, no precipitation. Roadway was a paved chipseal path approximately 8' across, with about 2-3' of grassy shoulder on each side, flanked by a steep (45 degree or more) embankment dropping more than 20' to either side.

Safety Equipment: He had operating lights and a helmet, but no rear mirror. I had operating lights, helmet, bell and mirror. I used the bell as audible warning of my impending pass.

Cause(s) of Crash: There were 4 factors that caused the crash. First, I was riding very fast - closure speed was approximately 20mph. Second, the other rider crossed the centerline and moved all the way to the left of the lane without checking behind him for other cyclists. Third, the other rider did not signal his intent to turn right, nor that he was slowing down. (At this point there was enough light for me to make out hand signals) Fourth, and the immediate cause of the crash, I passed on the right.

Notes: By the time I realized that the other rider was going to continue drifting all the way left and leave me with no room to pass, my options had narrowed to A: Maximum braking (unsafe), B: Continue left onto the grassy shoulder (unsafe, and likely to put me over and down the embankment), or C: Pass on the right. I chose C, and had I reached him 1 second earlier, I would have passed him without contact, though I would have scared the heck out of him. He and I both broke cardinal rules of cycling, which is the real cause of the crash, but it would have been better had I been riding slower.

---

As far as 2007 riding is going, I've managed almost 200 miles in January. Not great, but pretty respectable considering the average temperature of my rides the last 3 weeks has been 38 degrees. Overall average speed 10.3 mph, 14 rides in 29 days, for a total of about 6.5 miles per day. My weight got back up to 256lbs in late December, but I'm back under 250. I've lost some definition in my thighs, quads & calves, so it's definitely time for me to get back on the bike regularly.

Anyway, that's my morning, hope everyone else's is better!

Oh, and what happened to me? I have an impressive black spot under my left middle finger, some light road rash on my lower right leg, and a couple of bruises - left ankle, right elbow, right hip, right shoulder.

Compared to last year's hand injury, that's alright. :-D

So, where's the update?

Well, with the weather lately, it's been a little difficult to motivate myself to ride. Not that I have an aversion to cold (I am originally from Michigan, after all), nor to snow (again, Michigan),but I am allergic to falling. Granted, snow is softer than pavement, but I still don't like to fall and now that the snow is packed and melting, it's slipperier than ever. I don't ride a fixie, so I can't use zipties to make myself some cool snow tires. So, I'm waiting for the snow to mostly melt off. Hopefully, I'll be back 2-wheeling it again tomorrow.

Kirsty's Aquatic Bike Move

Ok, no photos - it was too blasted wet. This was a long ride for me. I left my place and rode 10 miles to Tomas' apartment near Mt. Tabor. Then we rode from there to North Portland to pick up a trailer from one of the Shifties, and then rode to NW Portland to Kirsty's OLD place. Then the work started. Well, after doughnuts. We loaded up, and there ended up being a lot more people than anyone really expected. Then usual crowd - Timo, Ken, Steph, Kirsty, Brian, Emily, Steve, and those of us who don't seem to be at every Shift event. ;-) Tomas, Sonia (who I met today), and myself. Oh, and I know I'm forgetting one or two others. It rained from just before I got to Tomas' place until just after we got to Kirsty's, and sprinkled a bit afterward. I stopped raining completely before we'd finished the move, and then everyone retired to the local pub in SE Portland.

I had a long, dark ride home, but since I had a spare set of gloves, my hands were dry and the uphill effort warmed me up fairly quick.

Total mileage: 34.36 miles
Total time on the bike: 3 hours 42 minutes
Weight this morning: 247 pounds

Since I haven't been riding, my weight crept back up, and I'm starting to lose some muscle tone. I've got 83 miles so far this month, though, and I rode 24 miles in the last 2 weeks of December, so I'm on the recovery road.

Ringing in the New Year!

Ok, I could have sworn that I'd posted something over the past 2 months, but I guess not. Life swallowed me up for a while, but fortunately it spit me back out and I landed on my bike.

Here's the stats for 2006:
Total Mileage: 3,022.03 (that works out to 8.91 miles per day - I biked for 339 days last year)
Average Speed, all rides averaged: 11.7 MPH
Total time in the Saddle: 259 hrs 43 min (whew)

I moved in December, and now my 11 mile commute has become a 12.5 mile commute. In addition, it usually takes 10-30 minutes longer to bus in than to bike in. (Biking home is about the same time, or 10 minutes less if my ride is going good) My final rides of the year were riding in to work from the new place, on December 18th and 19th.

Woohoo!

The Scary Helmet Ride

Just in time for Halloween, it's the Scary Helmet Ride!

(click on the pic for full-size route map)

You are invited to join me for a Halloween ride through Ladd's addition, Belmont and Laurelhurst. We'll start and end at Lucky Lab brew pub on Hawthorne & SE 9th, and ride a little more than 5 miles through quiet neighborhoods and (in theory) scare the 'lil children (in a kind-hearted way of course).


Bring a SCARY helmet, or dress up, and bring some goodies to share with everyone. The ride leaves Lucky Lab at 6pm!

Welcome to the Late Great Update

Wow, over a month since I updated - what's up with that?

Stats:
Total Days since I "found myself" again: 258
Miles per day: 11.17
Total Miles: 2,880.63 at an average speed of 11.7 mph
Total Time in the Saddle: 247 hours 0 minutes

Weekend:
I rode the Harvest Century. The results were mixed, maybe I should say I survived the Harvest Century.

I tried to ride the 102 mile route, but I didn't get started until about 20 minutes after the course opened, I rode slower than expected,and I got a flat about 35 miles into the ride. So I decided to take the 75 mile route instead. I started having some shifting problems right after the Canby Ferry, and had the guys from Performance who were doing mechanical support look at the bike. I had another broken spoke and a bent chainring (the outer one). The wrenches bent the chainring back as close to straight as they could, and replaced the busted spoke with one of the spares that I carry all the time now, and topped off the air in my rear tire, since I'd only pumped the tube up to about 30psi.


That tube lasted another 10 miles, then got punctured. I heard it happen. So I changed that tube, this time in the rain (it started raining about an hour before this). I had my Tyvek StP jacket, so I was partly dry. I'd gotten the tube changed (I can do this in about 15 minutes now) and was pumping up the tire when the SAG wagon arrived with a floor pump. A couple minutes later I was back on the road. I trained for another 90 minutes or so before finally stopping when I pulled in at the final rest stop.

About 1 mile from Champoeg state park, the second tube started getting mushy. I pulled over and pumped it up, and felt air coming out of the same weak spot in the tire as the previous tube - must have punctured this one on the gravel bits littering the shoulder. Since I had no spare tubes, and patching it would have taken forever, I pumped it upto about 30psi and rode until it went flat again. Pump, ride, flat,repeat. 4 times and I was back at the start. Damn straight I bought the T-Shirt.

So, that was my weekend. The kicker is that I have brand new tires I bought at Performance on Saturday, but I didn't put them on the bike because you never make changes right before the century. (that's the conventional wisdom) Next time I'll do it anyway.

Tomorrow marks 2,500!

So, sometime tomorrow, probably about the time I get to the Hawthorne bridge, I will mark 2,500 miles for the year. Woohoo! I'm looking forward to it.

I should get in some decent mileage this weekend, since I'm volunteering for the Shift parking at the Salmon Nation event at the Ecotrust building on Saturday, going to the Shift-nic on Sunday, and doing the Midnight Mystery Ride on Friday. Woohoo again!

Current Status

Total Mileage, 2006: 2,450.23
211 hours and 14 minutes riding
222 days since I started riding regularly (average 11.04 miles / day)
Current Weight: 242.5 lbs.
Overall average speed: 11.6 mph

My average speed peaked August 3rd at 13.39 mph. I keep a weighted average, which lets me see my fitness progress, at least until I start to reach the limitations of my tires and gear ratio. My current average is 11.98 mph, which is mostly due to the week I didn't ride during GenCon and this last week, when I took a 5-day break after riding up to Mt. Hood.

Well, at least my recoveries are getting quicker!

This blog has been more a log of my progress than anything else, and probably immensely boring to the odd traveler that ends up here. I think I have maybe 3 regular visitors. *grins*

Well, back to the ole' grind. Heading to the Shift! to Bikes meeting tonight at ACME (not at Urban Grind this time) at 7pm. Report coming later.

Clackamas County Ped / Bike Committee Mtg

Ok, get ready for a mouthful. Last night, I went to the Clackamas County Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting at the Sunnyside Service Center in unincorporated Clackamas County south of the mall. (whew)

This was an interesting experience, and I'm glad I went. Some highlights:

The PWTC (Portland Wheelman Touring Club) is looking to donate some bike racks. Nice ones, not cheesy - to be placed in public parks. They've already got a donation lined up for Crown Point, and they're looking for places in Clackamas County as well.

The Mount Hood villages endorsed the idea of bike lanes on Salmon River Rd and Welches Rd.

Steve Durrant from Alta Planning presented the current proposed alignment of the bike paths along and intesecting ODOT's Sunrise Corridor project. This was the centerpiece item of the meeting. Basically, ODOT is going to build a new freeway - the "missing link" of Hwy 224, from the existing Milwaukie Expressway to the current 224/212 road at about SE 152nd. This will include flyovers from I-205, and will entail new bike paths / bike lanes in the project area, and a realignment of the existing I-205 bike path (as well as completion of the "missing link" from the I-205 / 224 / 82nd Ave interchange south to Clackamas Hwy (212/224).

For those of us in the Oatfield / Thiessen / Webster area, Alta is studying a number of local bikeway connections to Johnson from the I-205 bike path. (Click on pic for larger image) There are 4 options. Option A is a new road to the north, striped with bike lanes. It's pretty much a given, so I've omitted it. (it's the road between K-Mart and Lowe's - it'll connect to 82nd on the east) Option B has right-of-way issues with the properties to the south. Option C has little in ROW issues, but is fairly high traffic due to the apartment complex adjacent to the road. Option D has no traffic issues, but is owned by the school district and on school property - building a path would be contingent on the cooperation and approval of the school board. Alta requested the board's input into these options, and the board expressed a preference for Option D, or Option C if D were not available.

The board also recommended the extension of the proposed bike route parallel to the new highway to the eastern project boundary, identifying it as a bicycle transportation corridor. In my opinion, I think this is a good and logical choice. With the expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary to include Happy Valley and Damascus, the number of bike commuters from that area will grow, especially with the projected completion of the Clackamas Mall light rail terminal sometime in 2009.

An open house for the public is scheduled to occur during the next meeting of the Clack Co. Ped / Bike Advisory Committee in November. (should be November 7th)

Next up were John Mermin and Amy Rose from Metro. Metro is in the process of updating the Regional Transportation Plan, and John and Amy are responsible for identifying stakeholders and areas of concern for the bike and pedestrian aspects of that plan, respectively. Noted were the changes that have occured in Clackamas County since the last RTP was produced, and the identification of problem intersections, like SE 17th and McLoughlin or Lake Rd and McLoughlin, both in Milwaukie. (there were other intersections identified, NOT just those two) One idea that came up in the discussion was the need for some sort of ombudsman for maintenance issues, especially given the mishmash of jurisdictions when calling for road maintenance. (i.e. city / county / state)

Thelma Hagenmiller updated the committee on the progress being made on the Trolley Trail. The contour survey is now complete along the whole length of the trail, and a segment of the current unpaved portion between Creighton and Arista that was previously unaccessable is now open. A public meeting regarding the trail is scheduled at the Oak Grove School on October 18th.

This was my first community meeting, and I was able to provide some limited input from my experience as an area resident and a bicycle commuter. I look forward to more such meetings in the future.