Tri-Island

The 29th annual Tri-Island Bicycle Trek was this weekend. This was probably the last one. That's very sad, it's the end of an era. It makes me wonder if i should see it as a sign.

I moved to Washington exactly 20 years last Tuesday. First i lived in Olympia and then Issaquah. I moved into my apartment on Eastlake to start a new life December 1st 1992 and six weeks later i got involved with the Tri-Island. It's been an incredibly important part of my life since then. Even today much of my social network is people involved, or formerly involved in that ride.

Tri-Island a three day charity ride for the American Lung Association of Washington has run every September since 1983.  The past few years it has run only once, but for many years it was three times, three consecutive weekends in September. I have ridden it twice, and volunteered for road staff 23 times. It's a heck of a lot of fun. It got me into the amazing San Juan Islands very soon after moving here, got me involved with HAM radio and gave me platform to teach cycling.

Most of the times i volunteered as road staff i was a HAM radio operator in a vehicle, such as a mechanic or medic vehicle. I love working with the radio. I had been wanting to be a HAM radio operator since i was 9, but it had not happened. When i got involved with Tri-Island i met a bunch of HAMs and they taught me, and have mentored me ever since. On December 12, 1994, with the help of Joe & Tom, i got my HAM license. I was thrilled.

I have long admired many of these people and i enjoy working with them. This is a tight solid group of hard working volunteers. We've lost a lot of folks as volunteers have peeled off for various reasons now and then, but there is still a core there. I have 15 years service, there are more than a few with 18, 20, 25, even a few with 29 years service.

I worked almost every position on the ride possible, over the years. But my dream from the beginning was to be sweep rider. Few of the volunteers are actually cyclists, so being a HAM operator and a cyclist was an advantage. It took a long time but, finally in 2007 i got that position. I loved it. I got to ride my bike, in the San Juan Islands, use my radio and help people all at the same time -- four of my favorite things.

I was sweep rider for four years and i assumed i would be this year too. A couple of months ago the new director of the event called me up and asked if i would be Command this year. I was floored. I've got a pretty fertile imagination and yes, i had i worked every other position on the ride, but i have to admit that i never even imagined i would one day do Command for Tri-Island. This was beyond my dreams.

But i thought i could do it. I was nervous, but pretty confident. I've watched a lot over the years and i've done a lot of other HAM radio events, including doing Command for several. I thought i could do it, but i didn't feel like i was the best choice. I suggested to the director that there were better choices than me. I suggested Tom, my long time mentor who i work with every year on the ride; Tom who taught my HAM class back in 1994.

Laura's response: "He recommended you."

I was honored. And amazed.

So i worked my butt off in the weeks before hand preparing and for four days i ran the meetings, made the position assignments, controlled all the radio traffic and directed all the volunteers. It was hard work. It was fun. Everyone said i did well. And i had a great time in the Islands. Man they are beautiful, relaxing, wonderful.

I slept a lot this week recovering from it. I would really look forward to next year, i'm always better at things the second time around, but there isn't likely to be one. This ride once had 950 people a year, this year we took 75. The culture has changed and the organization has not supported the event. They are no longer interested in it. So it was sad too.

Pennant Race

Baseball and data have been absorbing passions of mine since i was very young. One of the first things i did when i first got my hands on a computer in the late 1970s was to develop a way of tracking the Major League standings and developing new statistics from the data i got from the newspaper.

While i still love baseball, i've lost a lot of interest in the Major Leagues with the outrageously greedy owners and downright evil usurper of a commissioner. But i still love data and for the last several years i've been tracking the standings in an interesting, beautiful way.

I update daily win-loss data once a week; i have figured some tricks, but it still takes quite a while. I'm sure there is a way to have the computer automatically search out the scores every day and insert it into my database, but i haven't figured that out yet.

The graphs are by division, there are 6 divisions, 6 pennant races in baseball these days (they call it the crown, the pennant is for the league). The reason for such a large number of divisions is to create those painfully long and boring playoffs that take up most of the fall.

I plot the daily standing (winning percentage) of each team in the division. It's a great way to see how the season unfolds. You can SEE pennant races. Teams will tangle for a period, the lines will tie in a knot, then one will move away. You can see slumps and streaks. You can even see double headers if you look closely enough. You can instantly see if i division is a tight race or a blowout. It's also interesting to me how the games seem to have different value as the season progresses. The emotional reaction is that games late in the season mean more, but looking at the graphs, you can see how one game causes a much bigger jump in the standings early in the season than it does late in the season. This is standard mathematics, of course they all count the exact equal amount, but it LOOKS different, and it looks different from what we normally assume.

The dotted line is the league wild card -- the highest placed 2nd place team. It's strange to blog about dynamic data. It's going to be frozen in time here. I had been intending to post this at the end of the season, but with a week still to go i find it fascinating to see that gap to the finish line. I've got graphs now for four years, but i'll just post this year's i think. Every year is different, but they are all beautiful.

American League East

The Yankees and Red Sox tangle it up all season and then the Red Sox slump big at the end. Otherwise no real position changes in the second half of the season, but FOUR teams above .500! The rest of the divisions have only 2 (or 1).

American League Central

The Tigers and Indians tangled mid-season for first, then the Indians dropped down into a battle for second with the White Sox. Twins have a long slow but deep slump after the All Star break. Tigers are the only team above .500.

American League West

Mariners collapse in July but fairly stable otherwise. Two races, far apart. Two teams above .500 two below.

National League East

Phillies start to finish. Braves have a good season, no one close, but can't touch the Phillies.

National League Central

This wonderful tight knot in July with the Pirates, Cardinals and Brewers ended with a huge split.

National League West

Smells Like Nirvana

As someone who has spent a lot of time carefully listing to a lot of music, and who appreciates satire i have long enjoyed Weird Al Yankovic. I think he's a genuis. In many cases i have heard his parody of a song far more times than the original song, and with a lot of his parodies from the last 5 or 10 years i have NEVER heard the original! (Yeah, i'm old.)

Genius in France, Bob, Smells Like Nivana are but a few of his jaw droppingly brilliant parodies.

I'm lucky enough to have friends like Aurilee & Javier and yesterday Javier emailed me with an offer of a really good seat at tonight's Weird Al concert at the Puyallup Fair AND an after show meet and greet.

I do have to say, there was a bit of irony in seeing several thousand devoted fans screaming at the every word and move of a guy who has made his carreer on making fun of rock stars and rock fans.

It was a really fun show, he's as good a performer as he is a writer and recording artist. I enjoyed it. And i got to shake hands with him and tell him he's a Genius... in France or anywhere else!

Combination ride

What a fun ride.

After an early lunch i zipped downhill to the Link light rail station downtown. The train arrived right as i got on the platform. I love trains and i always enjoy the light rail ride. I got off at Rainier Beach where Linda was waiting. We rode down the lake a couple of miles and then cut through some ugly streets in Renton to get to the Black River area, met Nadine there and connected through the old Longacres horse track site to the Interurban trail where we met Karen. Her son dropped her off. He just signed as a collage football player and we congratulated him. He has HUGE hands!

As soon as we got rolling south on the trail we realised that we were all hungry so we stopped in Kent at Pannera and enjoyed that. Then a nice, fast, ride down the very straight Interurban trail. It was a gorgeous day, a bit cloudy and 65 degrees, very comfortable and very welcome after the terribly hot days we've been having. The trail took us to Sumner and then we rode the West Valley Highway to Puyallup. It was somewhat fresh chipseal and we stayed on the white line and rode fast.

In Puyallup everyone else met their husbands and went into the enormous Puyallup Fair, i turned around to head home. (I was curious, but $11 for 30 minutes of fair didn't seem worth it.) I pulled up to the Sounder commuter rail station and the friendly attendant told me that the northbound train would be on the left track today. Strange. I rolled my bike on the Sounder and sat down. It was a wonderful ride. Smooth and relaxing. Looking out the window i could almost believe i was on a European train.

I was tempted to enjoy the train all the way to Seattle, but i wanted some more miles, so i got off in Kent, retraced my tire tracks a bit up the Interurban trail, connected with the Green River trail and then headed into South Park. At the end of the trail i encountered a rider with a nice bike, a flat tire and no pump. He said he'd been walking for over a mile. We quickly and carefully changed the tire, he had never changed one so i was a teacher, and were both on our way in opposite directions.

I ride through the neat little neighborhood of South Park frequently but i have never explored it much (except those times i got lost!) so i did a couple of loops just to look around and then was on my way again. Instead of going all the way to Alki, I crossed the Duwamish Waterway at Michigan street, rode 4th ave to Dearborn to Judkins Park and home, with a stop for a Salmon Burger a few blocks away.

Tired. Exactly 100km - 62.1 miles. Good company, fun trains and very nice ride.

Two decades

Today is the 20th anniversary of when i arrived in Washington.

On Sept 12 1991 drove north from Berkeley California, where i had been visiting my girlfriend. I spent that night in Salem Oregon and in the morning headed up I-5.  At 11:30 AM i crossed the river in to Washington for the first time. When i got to Olympia, my new home for the next 10 months, i was in awe at the rainforest and the mountains and water and i continue to be today. I moved to Issaquah in the Seattle suburbs in June 1992 and into Seattle for good in October 1992.

In the 20 years that Washington has been my home, i've spent a total of 17.4 years in the state; traveling has accounted for an accumulated total of two and a half years. The two decades were divided in the middle by the year long trip to Europe.

Since last year (the tipping point) i've spent more time in Washington than anywhere else, over a third of my life. It sure went quickly.

Seattle is a fascinating city, a very young city. My two decades here are about 1/6 the history of the city. It's impossible to avoid the feeling that it is a city in it's late adolescence. There was an enormous change in 1999 & 2000, the city grew up. I've really lived in two very different cities, Seattle in the 1990s and Seattle in the 2000s. I know things are changing everywhere, but i think it's remarkable how much Seattle has changed in the last two decades.

And it's not just the attitude, the feeling, the personality, (if a city can have a personality!) that has changed. I was chatting with the woman next me on the bus the other day, we agreed that there are few cities in the world where the urban landscape changes as rapidly and dramatically. I've only lived here 20 years but on any bus ride, any walk or bike ride i can point to an amazing amount of places where buildings have changed, sometimes more than once!

ride for Val Kleitz

Val Kleitz, bike mechanic, and great guy died of cancer last week.  The last time i saw him he was in good spirits and was on his bike.  He said nothing was working so they were going to try doing nothing.  He was still riding his extracycle 10 miles each way to work.  With cancer.  I don't have to tell anyone in Seattle that we've lost a giant.

We did the only thing we could for him.  We rode bikes.  A HUGE number of people showed up.  I wasn't surprised at all.

I had a special bond with Val. We were good friends.

I wasn't the only one. Hundreds of people had a special bond with Val -- he was that kind of guy. I really don't think it was fake, he really cared about people and he made you feel like you were important to him. Because you were. Everyone was. I don't feel slighted or disappointed that i wasn't the only one. I'm thrilled. Val was truly an amazing guy. He doesn't just leave a hole in this city, or in the bike culture.  He leaves a hole in my life. He will be missed very much.

Bikesmith was only my regular bike shop for about 4 years, (out of 40 years of regular cycling) but to me now, and probably for always, it is THE DEFINITIVE bike shop. It was the pinnacle. It's the bike shop i dream of.  And Val is standing there with a wrench.

Val was bigger than life in many ways, he was fun to talk to, fun to hang out with and HOLY CRAP was he an amazing mechanic.

My mechanics (and friends) Kent & Eric and i celebrate Val.

Val and i share a laugh.

This  map is the route of the Val Kleitz memorial Cargo Bike Ride.  Click to enbiggen.
We rode 8.6 miles, 364 feet of elevation gain, so a bit on the flat side for a ride in Seattle.

me with the Dreadnought.  What an honor.

Ryan and Val eat potato salad with a cone wrench just like Val used to do in the shop all the time... it actually works really well.  Aaron had a case of cone wrenches and we all got one. It was an inspired gesture.  There were lots and lots of people and lots of really wonderful bikes out in the park to celebrate Val.  At the end of the ride i took some photos of the bikes.

Tom

Robert

Aurilee

Eric Berg

Carl

Kent Peterson

Marie

Wayne

Schmidt Edelux

One of the frustrations of cycling is the constant replacing of batteries in the headlight.

There are two kinds of lights: SEE ME lights, and SEE AHEAD lights.

Until recently see me lights were cheap and great for getting the attention of other road users, but did nothing for lighting up the road itself.  See ahead lights that light up the road were very expensive and extremely battery hungry. 

But i've always wanted to see the road, to ride in the dark.  So i usually choose a see ahead light with a dynamo, an electrical generator, that converts some of the energy from the bicycle, from me that is, into power for the light.

I first started riding with a generator light back in the mid 1970s. Generators then were loud, created a great deal of drag, damaged the side of the tire, required a great deal of tweaking and the light went off at stop lights. But there was no battery required, i had nothing to throw in the landfill, there was nothing to replaced weekly (or daily!). My light was always there. And it was the brightest thing around, not only did it make me visible, but i could see where i was going. And i have to say i kind of liked the way it made my bike sound like a jet engine as i accelerated downhill.

In the early 1990s, when almost all of my night riding was in the city, with good street lighting, i gave up on generators and used blinky lights front and back, figuring all i needed was to be seen, not to light my own way. I had a few sets of rechargeable batteries which i changed every couple of weeks.

But then in the late 1990s generator technology made a big leap (thanks to a German law requiring them on all bicycles). I read about the amazing bottom bracket generators that contacted the bottom of the tire, not the side, were quiet and were much much, more efficient. And the lights store 5 minutes of power so they stay on at traffic lights! After a long conversation about lights and generators, Val Kleitz at Bikesmith managed to find an imported bottom bracket generator for me, with front and back lights. I was thrilled.  I rode with that generator set for years. It served me very well. I loved it.

Although it was pretty quiet there was a bit of hum . When someone would ride right next to me they would sometimes ask about the sound. I was sorry it wasn't louder, i loved to talk about the generator, although, sadly, i don't think i ever converted anyone. I never had to think about batteries, i always had my light and it was always ready to go.  I used no power from the wall, or from a factory, i never threw any chemicals into the landfill, and every time i rode with anyone else, i had the brightest light on the road! That halogen headlight really lit things up.

Last year, for my birthday, my parents got me a hub generator! This is a huge advance. It's completely silent and very powerful. It's extremely efficient, there is no noticeable drag at all -- it uses magnets passing each other rather than contact with the tire. And it looks really cool too.

I love it. It's got more than enough power for my halogen headlight, however headlight technology has advanced considerably. My headlight is not really that bright. It hasn't changed, but all the other lights have. Even many of the small, cheap see me lights are now brighter than my halogen. Lights have begun using super bright LEDs which use considerably less current than a halogen.

So at the top of my wish list is now the Schmidt Edelux.

(I'd probably get black, the red is a slightly different color than my burgundy bike, and sliver might stand out too much... but any of the three would work.)

This light is amazingly bright.

But more importantly, it is focused, wide and low, so not to blind other cyclists.

So i'm going to ask for a Schmidt Edelux from Peter White Cycles this year.

Jump the Paint!

Yesterday i rode through the intersection of Eastlake and Fuhrman. They've recently painted a green bike lane there to make this very dangerous intersection a little safer. (I witnessed a car hit a bike there once.)  I looked down at the road paint and was reminded of a particularly notable crossing of this intersection back several years ago.

I was heading to a late morning appointment near the University. I'd taken mostly back roads and trails down the hill, but now i was on the major artery.

I was focused; riding with motor traffic northbound on Eastlake Avenue, i knew i had to scramble.  I was very alert -- the south end of the University Bridge, just ahead, is a notoriously dangerous intersection. I looked down the block and saw that the light at Fuhrman Ave had just turned green; if i hurried i could cross the angled intersection with Harvard Ave, make the full block and pass through the traffic light safely right before it changed, leaving me with a car-free gap at the beginning of the bridge; which is exactly the timing you need to safely negotiate the worst sections of the bridge.

There is a bike lane along this block, it's a dangerous one and i frequently avoid it, nevertheless i was aiming for it. As i crossed the first intersection i saw three orange traffic cones placed close together entirely across the bike lane -- there were three more cones, widely spaced, blocking the right car lane. There was no indication of why this was.
I didn't have time to think about it; there was a car revving it's engine right over my left shoulder preventing me from swerving into the left traffic lane.

So i split the cones and went into the blocked off right travel lane. I had accelerated for that move and was moving pretty quickly, but i could see that there were no obstructions. There was no construction work or material in the lane.  I was familiar with this.  Frequently construction zones can offer cyclists a bit of protection from aggressive motorists, so i was pleased and a bit more comfortable alone in that empty lane. 

I glanced, as i often do, at the DON'T WALK signs ahead -- these signs are kind of a pre-yellow light, they help let you know when a light is getting ready to change. It's a very useful little trick when cycling in the city. By the time i was in the middle of the block, the DON'T WALK signs were flashing, time was getting short, but i felt i could still make it, so i sped up a little. There was still no evidence of why the lane was coned.

As i approached the green light at the end of the block, a worker jumped out into my lane and started waving his arms and yelling.  Only then did i notice that they had just painted the 18 inch wide stop line moments before and, understandably, he didn't want me running through the wet paint.  Road paint.  I didn't want me to run through it either.

Once on a ride to Port Townsend, along a bumpy chip seal road, i moved over to ride on the white fogline, a common trick to find a smoother ride. About 250 meters later i came around a corner and saw the paint truck ahead of me painting the fresh white line. My bike, and legs were covered with white road paint.  Road paint is permanent.  It didn't come off my bike until i had it sandblasted for painting, over a year later.

Now i had a problem. I was going to make the green light, and i was protected in that coned off lane.  There was a worker in front of me, and wet paint across the road.  I was going pretty fast, probably too fast to stop.  There are several things i could have done at that point. It's even remotely possible that grabbing a big handful of brake could have skidded me up to the line safely. 

I only had a tiny fraction of a second to make a decision and i made one. Generally my traffic instincts are good, but i'm not going to defend my decision this time. I went for it. I shifted and accelerated hard.  I needed speed for what i was going to do.  The worker yelled at me again, not nicely at all.

I got to the freshly painted line at speed and did a bunny hop, just picked the bike up with my feet and sailed through the air. I can't always pull that off, but with the advantage of speed, i flew though the air quite a long way.  I landed it beautifully, softly on both tires at the same time. It felt like a long leap, but i wasn't sure i had pulled it off.

As i sped across the intersection towards the bridge i heard the same worker shout, "Hey guy, that was really good!", and laugh.

There was no wet paint on my tires. I cleared the line!

Three Feet

Yesterday, i'm riding south on 20th Ave S, my normal bike route to the south. I cross Yesler on a green light and it's 3 blocks of residential street, next to Pratt Park, to the light at Jackson. This is NOT an arterial, that's why i'm riding it. Maximum allowable speed is 25 mph. With a park along the west side and another playground one block to the east, kids running in the street is a common occurrence.

I see ahead of me a large white American car has stopped in the street, appears to be letting out or picking up a passenger connected with the park. The proper and legal thing for me to do is to move left:  i look behind me and start to signal but the blue SUV is coming way too fast, 35+ mph, so even though it's my right of way, i cower right for a moment while it passes me and then passes the white car.

Once it has passed me, i shoulder check, signal, shoulder check and move left. A small red car comes out of nowhere, scares the crap out of me because it is aiming right at me as i move left. It's moving very fast, certainly above the speed limit. It actually looks like it is going to try to pass me despite the fact that i am already in the left lane in the process of passing the stopped car. But that would be crazy.  (and illegal) I stick out my arm and make a 'stop' sign.

The car keeps coming. It actually squeezes past me while i'm passing, a staggeringly dangerous maneuver, not to mention extremely rude. Oh and it's illegal, but i know motorists rarely pay the slightest attention to such things. It turns out the little red car is electric, and silent. With environmental bumper stickers on it no less. As this nutcase hurriedly squeezes passed me i just hold on with both hands. I try to slow down enough to get out of the way of this extremely aggressive driver. 

Once she is past me she has to slow almost to a stop, of course, because of the blue SUV in front of her. If she had been paying any attention at all to driving, she would have known that.  But it was much more important to illegally squeeze past me.  I have to grab the brakes to keep from impact. I look at her in the rear view mirror and get a quizzical look on my face and stick both arms out, palms flat, as if to say: 'What was that?' I was pleased that i have gotten over the standard tendency to use a nasty gesture at that point. I didn't say a word.

She leaned out of the window and started yelling hysterically: "I gave you three feet! I gave you three feet!" She drove the entire next block to the next light, leaning out the window screaming "I gave you three feet!". Of course at the next block there was a red light and i stood behind her for the entire light while she screamed. I didn't say a word. I hoped that just the fact that i was behind her would demonstrate that her aggression, speed, illegality, and rage didn't even save her 1 second. But i doubt she noticed.

She just kept shrieking, "I gave you three feet!" Apparently this very sick person thinks that a sketchy bike club's silly bumper sticker is more important than... i don't know. The LAW. Or common sense. Or even just friendliness.

August ride map

I rode 407.5 miles in August down from the 450 in July but up 2.9 from last year.
I rode on 22 days.