On Fast Rides

For anyone living in a cave, or not following the Pro Cyclists, Fabian Cancellara of Team Saxo Bank (formerly team CSC) cleaned up at the Men’s Elite Individual Time Trial in Mendrisio, Switzerland. Here is is an article about the win that I suspect Specialized will be in no hurry to pull from their website.

Now Cancellara pulled his +50km/h average speed on a Specialized S-Works Shiv TT, which looks something like this:

Now near as I can tell, your average consumer cannot buy a Shiv, the best us mortals can hope to piss away our hard earned on is one of these.

Someone in the club asked what was downgraded from what Fabian had to what I have, mainly he has more deep dishes in his aero wheels, and his seat post tube leading edge is straight, mine obviously is curved. Oh yeah, Fabian Cancellara is on the Shiv, that's probably the biggest difference!

Anyway for anyone who is wondering, my goal next year is to do a OCA sanctioned UCI rules ITT average of at least 45km/h over no less than a 35km distance. I need to get Alex sized perfectly, and I am now accepting donations for a TT saddle and helmet.

On Food and US Politics

I have another post in the works, it is almost done actually, but I came across this piece, in The Huffingtonpost by Bill Maher. Anyway I think this goes a long way towards explaining the screwed up likes of Glen Beck and Bill O'Reilly.

That's the ultimate sign of our lethargy: millions thrown out of their homes, tossed out of work, lost their life savings, retirements postponed - and they just take it. 30% interest on credit cards? It's a good thing the Supreme Court legalized sodomy a few years ago.

Why can't we get off our back? Is it something in the food? Actually, yes. I found out something interesting researching last week's editorial on how we should be taxing the unhealthy things Americans put into their bodies, like sodas and junk foods and gerbils. Did you know that we eat the same high-fat, high-carb, sugar-laden shit that's served in prisons and in religious cults to keep the subjects in a zombie-like state of lethargic compliance? Why haven't Americans arisen en masse to demand a strong public option? Because "The Bachelor" is on. We're tired and our brain stems hurt from washing down French fries with McDonald's orange drink.

Ever since I started biking I've paid really close attention to what I eat, at the same time Faux news has gone from annoying to downright nutty. Well suddenly it all makes sense. Bill Maher for President... or if he moved to Canada maybe we could persude him to oust Iggy and become leader of The Liberals?

On Riding too far and riding fast.

On Saturday September 5 I did an 8km time trial. My performance was not the best of everyone there, but it was pretty damned impressive considering my TT bike (Alexandra) was never sized correctly. (For anyone who cares about such things, of the 20 or so people who did the time trial, I came in third place, 12 minutes 10 seconds.) Anyway here is a nerdy thought, the front nose (or what used to be a rivet back in the glory days when only Europeans won The Tour) of a saddle on a time trial bike must come no further forward than 5cm behind a vertical line that extends down through the centre of the bottom bracket. I keep this rule in mind because Alexandra is in direct violation of that rule. The nose of her saddle comes within about 2.5cm of the line. Now if there exists someone who can explain to me why such a rule would have slightest consequence to someone at my level of cycling, I would very much like to hear that someone do their explaining. Frankly pissing away $200 on a time trial saddle was not part of my plans for a fun weekend.

Still 8km in 12:10, not bad for someone who only a year and a few months ago was proud to get to Burlington and back (100km) in one ride.

On Sunday, September 13, was the Ride for Karen. The ride raises money to send children with cancer to summer camp. I made a discovery in fund raising efforts, always select the box that says: I will raise the minimum amount required to waive the entrance fee. I did not think I could raise $250 in under a week that I had (I was going to do the ITT in Plattsville except like I wrote above my TT bike is not legal). As it turns out I raised the required $250 in under a day. Except that since I had already paid the $100 entrance fee I was now stuck without so much as a tax receipt. (In truth all I wanted was for the $100 I paid to go towards my total raised, make my contribution seem a little less paltry.)

As for the ride itself, I went for the 160km route with the medium paced (30km/h) pack. I had to ride to the starting line, about 40km from home and thanks to an inability on my part to read, actually I simply misread the electronic guide, I was 90 minutes early.

I arrived at the starting line to a sunny yet windy and cold morning. By and by other BCC club members showed up. By 9am there were, if I remember right six of us. All quite content to do 30km/h for 100miles. We headed out, among a pack of what must have been over 100 strong, police volunteers even blocked traffic, we rolled through red lights and stops signs with a bliss all to infrequent for cyclists.

In the initial 20 or 30km the wind was a light cross wind and the pack made easy progress towards Brampton, but then we turned north and things became a lot more difficult. I was pulling at the turn, along side none other than Peter Oyler! For a brief hiccup I tried to keep up with Peter, after all sure he's probably about a million times stronger than I, but hey he had that horrible kidney thing that forced him to abort at about 1000 miles into the RAAM... Sorry Peter, 1556 miles (yes he wouldn't let me cheat him of those 556 miles on Sunday either!)

Peter was able to sustain the torturous pace far longer than I could so I dropped back. I gradually rolled forward again to find... Peter Oyler still pulling! After a few more minutes of slogging I dropped back again and progressed forward a third time, Peter was still pulling!

Eventually Peter did stop pulling, but whereas I might have pulled for two or three miles he pulled for twenty or thirty miles! The eventual right turn to the east and out of the wind was one of the most pleasant turns I have ever taken. Shortly after we stopped for a water break, there were cookies, fruit, water, and the Costco branded Gatorade knock off. A note for future reference, leave the bike leaned up against something, then get fluids, enough said. Oh yes, the table with food was set up right in the mud, I should have gone Cyclocross there was so much mud in my cleats after that stop.

We continued east through the Holland Landing, when I was young it was a rule as we drove to my grandparents cottage near the north end of Lake Simcoe, dad had to explain that this is the best soil in North America. Every time! I don't think he, or I, ever imagined I would bike through it.

Our pack that shrunk at the water break to just the BCCers gradually picked up some stragglers and on Steve's suggestion we started an echelon drill. We kept the echelon going for some time. Just west of Woodbine was the lunch stop which differed from the water stop in one key respect, there were sandwiches.

Now anyone who knows me, knows I avoid most solid foods when training, stomach distress sucks! I had half a turkey sandwich and hated myself for the next 30 minutes. Shortly after lunch Lesley called, I had to get home for an appointment. One small problem, home was about 60km away, and all I had was Erin, my road bike and my legs that had already done over 160km (100 miles). Well with a bit of grinding at a lot of admiring the beautiful paint job on Erin's top tube I hammered home in under two hours.

All in all, an excellent way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

On Thursday September 17 I went for another ride, I had the day off. I was hammering up a hill on beautiful Roubaix, Erin of course!, when her fork snapped in half. The subsequent crash was horrible, Erin was totaled! She was a good girl, but she's dead now. I need a new road bike... I need money... Is anyone looking for a part time computer guy?

I think it best if I observe a moment of silence for a pretty little Roubaix who covered several thousand miles with me, including two trips to Rochester, several to Lake Simcoe, a bunch of climbs up Rattle Snake point and a trip out to Harriston ON. Erin was an amazing little bike and for all her annoying quirks, head set issues mostly, I will miss her. If there is a bike heaven I would like to think that there are a bunch of Italians fighting over who gets to ride her. (No that's not a shot at Italians, quite the contrary, it is a compliment of their bike building and riding abilities.)

One final thing, last post I equated, or attempted to equate the lunacy of "the war on the car" concept with the lunacy of World War One. I thought I would get a response from a few angry motorists, I guess I am less widely read than I had believed (hopped). I will say this, in the course of finding references for my post, I happened upon this article in Spacing magazine. The author has one hell of an obvious point, well its not obvious until you think about it and then realize the author is genius, for seeing the obvious. There is no "war on the car", motorists have been in a civil war for years, that is the war. The cycling thing is minor, comparatively, but at least drivers can come after those idiot cyclists instead of all the other idiot drivers. After all, if all other drivers are idiots it stands to reason, all drivers are idiots therefore if you drive... Anyway by being angry at cyclists, drivers can vent their spleen without coming to the sad conclusion that they are themselves the morons! I feel for car drivers, then they swerve into the bike lane and I don't feel sympathetic anymore.

On The War on the Car

To hear some Toronto politicians tell it, car drivers are a pretty oppressed bunch. Apparently red light running cyclists and their allies in the corner offices of City Hall are busily scheming up new ways of inflicting, quel horreur, a longer commute on motorists.

Apparently life is so bad for the Toronto car driving set that the risk cyclists take every day, that is the risk of being killed by a reckless driver (or an oblivious one), pales next to the anguish suffered in the daily oil powered commute.

From my reading of the daily paper and the letters to the editor, as well as the insults (and refuse) drivers hurl at me on the saddle, it would seem the recent untimely passing of one Darcy Allen Sheppard was the spark that lit the fuse, just as the untimely demise of one Archduke Franz Ferdinand lit a fuse some 95 years ago. Consider, both men were in or grabbing onto motor vehicles when they perished, both died violent deaths. Yet I must confess the comparison doesn’t really work for me, but let me back track for a second for readers from abroad who are not aware of the full story.

On the evening of Monday August 31 the Toronto Police detained a drunken Darcy Allen Sheppard briefly where upon they discovered he had a number of minor charges (mostly property crimes) against him in Alberta. The Edmonton police were not interested in sending anyone to Toronto to retrieve a petty thief and so the Toronto police let Darcy go. His girlfriend asked the police to drive him home as he was in no condition to ride, the Toronto police do not provide a taxi service and refused. Sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 in the evening Sheppard, in a drunken state left his girl friend apparently with the intention of returning to his apartment, by bike about seven and a half kilometers away. In a posh area of the city often called The Mink Mile Sheppard had an altercation with a motorist, Michael Bryant, who happens to be the former attorney general and was at that time the head of a new agency called “Invest Toronto”. Over the course of the altercation Bryant had good reason to fear for his and his wife’s safety and tried to drive away, Sheppard grabbed hold of Bryant’s vehicle (a convertible) and would not let go. Bryant drove on the wrong side of the road, jumped the curb and smashed up against a mail box and a tree in an apparent effort to brush Sheppard off his car. Ultimately Sheppard did let go and was subsequently run over by the back wheel of Bryant’s car. Sheppard died an hour later in hospital. In short, and this is coming from an avid cyclist there is blame enough to go around, Sheppard’s girl friend could have allowed him to stay at her place, the police could have driven Sheppard home, of course Bryant, and Sheppard all behaved in a manner that contributed to Sheppard’s unfortunate demise.

What happened to Sheppard was a tragedy top to bottom. I don’t deny that. But getting back to my little essay, nobody has satisfactorily explained what Sheppard has in common with the Archduke besides the fact that their deaths escalated an already alarmingly dangerous situation.

In the case of World War One a common cry heard from Germany in the years and months leading up to that fateful summer of 1914 was that of encirclement. Germans had come to the bizarre conclusion the democracies of the World work colluding with the Cossacks to confine Germany and prevent her from her rightful expansion as a European mega-power. So great was this fear of encirclement that the Germans would build the finest war machine the world had seen up to that time. I have not heard encirclement from a motorist (or right leaning municipal politician) yet, but I strongly suspect that build another bike lane on Jarvis Street or perhaps enforce the existing bike/bus/taxi only lane on Bay Street and it’s just a matter of time before motorists start building a Navy and sign treaties with Austrians.

I suppose now is not a particularly good time to remind my readers that the World War was the most horrible and violent affair in the history of the world. (Many modern historians consider both World War One and Two to be one continuous war with an twenty one year lull while the Europeans manufactured a new generation of boys to send to the slaughter.) I don’t believe this War on the Car will be so violent, not for the motorists, however for those who the motorists face off against, it will be like the Cossacks who rode their horses into the German machine guns and heavy artillery. Those who might logically make war on the car, would need to be insane to actually consider such a course of action. Yet it does seem to me, as I dodge a driver in his two ton steel yacht on his cell phone or another driver in her mammoth SUV busily applying makeup that perhaps the Cossacks had the right attitude, better to die fighting than live with this insanity.

On Impossible Goals

I will not be doing the BCC Saturday ride. Here is my post to the BCC Saturday morning group:

Ooooh, a climb up Old Kingston, well I know someone who is probably itching to do that. But I'm afraid it won't be me, just because I still haven't figured out how I'm getting to Plattsville doesn't mean I'm not going to start training for it.

It took Alberto Contador 48:40 to do a lap around Lac d'Annecy...

I won't beat Contador, I won't come close, he is without doubt the greatest cyclist riding today, I don't much like him, but I've got to respect his ability's. But sometimes setting ludicrously impossible goals is a good thing, I won't achieve them but it forces me to try harder.

On Riding in Rough Conditions

Recently someone asked The Explainer in Velonews what happened to all the great road races during the war years.

Well it is no great secret, the Paris-Roubaix picked up it's pseudonym The Hell of the North when organizers toured the course in 1919 passing through the post apocalyptic destruction that was four years of trench warfare. But actually some road racing did take place, as Charles 'The Explainer' Pelkey explains here.

I love that bike history, cycling is something that predates the automobile, in fact many roads were originally built for cyclists, not motorists and ironically, thanks to peak oil one day, not too long from now, all those roads will be free of motor vehicles just as they once were.

On Revent Events, an update

Well at least I know my message made it to the Government of Ontario's mail servers. Today I got the following from someone, or more likely some software at Gov.on.ca (Pronounced: Gov-on-ka).

Subject: RE: Road saftey for cyclists
From: Minister of Transportation Correspondence (Web Account) [minister8@ontario.ca]
Sent: Thu 03/Sep/2009 2:19 PM

Thank you for your e-mail. It is important to the ministry and has been forwarded to the appropriate ministry office for review.

Once again, thank you for bringing your concerns to Minister Bradley's attention. He always appreciates hearing from members of the public.

Am I special or what? (If you didn't pick up any sarcasm trust me, it's there.)

On A New Chain

Around the same time that my GPS was replaced by Garmin (the previous unit was defective) I replaced my chain (the old chain was pretty well worn out). Well according to my GPS I have now logged almost 1900km. Which is remarkable because the replacement GPS arrived only a little over a month ago.

Now I have heard several schools of thought on bike chain replacement. One thought is measure the wear. Another school says, every thousand miles, yet another school says every three to four thousand kilometers.

I should insert here the part where I do confess to having a very fancy looking Park Tool made chain wear gauge. The problem with the gauge is it tends to predict that my chains are already stretched after just a couple hundred kilometers, so I have switched to the far more economical three to four thousand kilometers. Except, and here is a real kicker, I do half that distance every month! So I am supposed to replace a chain every two months from April to October? Ouch.

Hey speaking of Ouch, Floyd Landis the 2006 Tour cheater (I think he was busted for testosterone) is back in the saddle after his two year suspension. Landis is riding with team OUCH, and not doing anything impressive. Testosterone, it gets results! But the cycling journalist I mentioned earlier keeps hoping and specultating that Team RadioShack will pickup Landis. I guess Landis can get Lance an emergency supply if Contador and Schleck don't crash before next July? But are Landis' suppliers still in business?

Alright I am being really mean, but let's face it, here is a guy who was only a winner when he took drugs, why would anyone want him when presumably clean cyclists are out there for the choosing? Probably because Landis is American, Armstrong is American, get Lephiemer (an American) and Horner (American) on one team and you can really increase circultation numbers during the tour. Now the fans aren't cheering for Armstrong or Hincapie, they can cheer for Team America! Well I hope the Schleck boys clobber team America, heck I'd settle for a second... Oops, third, Contador win.

Anyway there was a tragic accident involving a cyclist and... Well obviously an automobile, guess who got killed. Except apparently the driver antagonized the cyclist who was drunk and physically threatened the driver, personally, I prefer to call the police, but then I ride sober. The whole story is a tragedy from top to bottom and to me only further illustrates why peak oil is a good thing that cannot happen soon enough.

In happier news, here are some pictures of me with and riding Alexandra. I must say, ever since Malcom at Biseagal worked his magic Alex has been one sweet ride.

On Recent Events

First if anyone is planning on going to Plattsville to do the ITT and has room in their car may I hitch a lift? (Or does anyone want to split the cost of a rental?) The guy who was going to drive me had an accident and won't be on the saddle much for the next few months. Lesley needs the car that weekend for a business function.

Now I sent the following letter to the Ontario Minister of Transportation, it is self explanatory.

Michael Cole
Toronto ON

Hon. James Bradley, Minister of Transportation
Ministry of Transportation
3rd Floor, Ferguson Block, 77 Wellesley St. West
Toronto ON M7A 1Z8
Jbradley.mpp@liberal.ola.org

September 1, 2009

Dear Mr. Minister,

On Sunday August 30 at around 10:00am I was riding my bicycle on Trafalgar Road south bound towards Upper Middle Road when I exchanged unpleasantries with a motorist who felt that I was not entitled, as a cyclist, to a lane of the road. I subsequently informed the Halton Regional Police of the exchange by telephone and was advised by the communications officer that in fact I am supposed to remain as far to the right side as safely possible, in short share the lane with motor vehicles.

As a result of this exchange I reviewed the Ontario Highway Traffic Act as posted online at: http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_90h08_e.htm and found the following somewhat ambiguous rules as applied to cyclists:

“vehicle” includes a motor vehicle, trailer, traction engine, farm tractor, road-building machine, bicycle and any vehicle drawn, propelled or driven by any kind of power, including muscular power, but does not include a motorized snow vehicle or a street car (Section 1.1)

And slow moving vehicles are defined as:

Vehicles (other than bicycles, motor assisted bicycles and disabled motor vehicles in tow) that are not capable of attaining and sustaining a speed greater than 40 kilometres per hour on level ground when operated on a highway. (Section 76.2.2)

Yet

Every person on a bicycle or motor assisted bicycle who is overtaken by a vehicle or equestrian travelling at a greater speed shall turn out to the right and allow the vehicle or equestrian to pass and the vehicle or equestrian overtaking shall turn out to the left so far as may be necessary to avoid a collision. (Section 148.6)

On the one hand sections 1.1 and 76.2.2 seem to imply that on my bicycle I am on a vehicle and as such entitled to the same access to our roads as any motorist. (Ironically with respect to section 76.2.2 when the altercation I described above took place I was actually traveling faster than the 40 kilometres per hour cut off for slow moving vehicles, roughly 47 kilometres per hour according to my bike’s computer.) Yet section 148.6 would suggest that I am supposed to yield my lane to any overtaking motor vehicle.

Now I believe I understand the rationale behind section 148.6 on a back country road where there might hardly be enough room for two cars to drive side by side, and finding a car, let alone two, on such a road might happen with such infrequency that pulling over is completely reasonable, but such a rule is, to be entirely frank, lunacy, in an urban setting.

Any given day that I decide to ride on an urban or suburban road I am forced to contend with potholes, swear grates, motorists who open doors without looking (the dreaded “door prize”, which one might recall resulted in a fatality in Toronto last summer when a motorist “doored” a cyclist on Eglinton Ave.) In addition to the stationary dangers, a cyclist’s ultimate terror are the motorists who choose to pay greater attention to their cell phone, makeup, car entertainment system, or whatever else, as opposed to traffic around them. Furthermore, when a motorist hits a cyclist, the cyclist is, if lucky only seriously injured. I am unaware of any motorist being hurt from a collision with a cyclist.

Therefore I am asking that a greater effort be placed on publically explaining what a cyclist is entitled to, do I get the full lane or should I let cars pass me? Clearly recent events with former Attorney General Bryant (http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/689220) suggest that one way or another the rules of the road are not well understood. I would also suggest in a world of greater environmental consciousness and declining oil reserves that more freedoms be granted to cyclists, after all encouraging cycling should reduce the overall cost of health care and road maintenance in Ontario.

I thank you for your time and consideration

Michael Cole