This was a great ride. I always enjoy riding. There are times when it's hard to ride alone, or when someone else is being difficult that can make it challenging, but i can usually enjoy the bike itself, the scenery or the fantastic weather. Today riding to work in the morning the weather was fantastic. Heavy rain, but no wind. It was very nice.
Tonight after the volunteer work party, a good group of us rode north from Bike Works. These are always the best rides. Riding at night in the city is one of the most wonderful things. Tonight the crescent moon and an extremely bright planet Venus were shining down on us as we left Bike Works for the dark shore of Lake Washington. Good company, quiet roads and a beautiful calm night made my legs strong. One person was heading further north than Capitol Hill and i stuck along the lake with her for a few miles, crossing the Montlake Bridge and doubling back over the University Bridge. It was a very pleasant ride and conversation.
On the way back i decided to ride up Interlaken Drive. I was coming from the other direction so i couldn't ride through the heavy dark forest of car-free Interlaken Park, but instead came through the shaded wealthy houses on the approach from the west. My strong legs and quiet bike gobbled up the smooth fast pavement and glorious curves of the dark quiet street. It was magnificent.
Wait a minute! My QUIET bike?
For a several weeks i've had a terrible creak in my bike when i stand up, or when i pedal hard. While i love a quiet bike, i accept little sounds, rattles and squeaks, if i know what they are and know they are not doing any damage.
I COULD NOT identify this creak. I tightened the crank bolts, a common cause of creak. Bottom bracket too. I took apart the cranks, handlebars, stem, and examined every inch of the bike. I had my bottom bracket professionally replaced. It really needed it. It was creaking, but that didn't get rid of the annoying creak. My expert mechanic couldn't identify it. I was getting pretty stressed about it. I was starting to worry it might be a frame crack!
I installed new handlebars recently, it wasn't that. I've been adjusting them every couple of days, trying to get used to them. I took apart the stem, cleaned it and greased it. That didn't fix it. I re-ran the cables. Nothing seemed to do it. Yesterday while doing something else, i popped off the front wheel. I adjusted the generator wire and rattled the locking quick release skewer a bit and i cleaned the dropouts and put a tiny layer of grease on them. Then i re-mounted the wheel.
I guess that must have done it. It was raining pretty hard on my ride out this morning so i probably wouldn't have heard it if it was creaking. But it was quiet riding across the city tonight.
My bike was quiet again. For the first time in weeks. It was calming. My new handlebars were finally perfectly adjusted, and i was adjusted to them. I enjoyed the ride in the rain this morning, loved my steel fenders too. I really enjoyed the company on the beautiful, stealthy night time scramble up Lake Washington. And as i sped through the sweeping curves from Roanoke to the start of the climb in Interlaken, i felt one with the bike, i felt fast, felt strong. I felt happy.
29 March 2012
17 March 2012
Washing My Bike
I just finished washing my bike.
I try to do it a couple of times a month in the winter. It's not just to make it look nice, although it does look nice now, sparkling out on the balcony in the sun. There are three more important reasons for washing my bike. First, it rides better; i'll get back to that. Second, i get a chance to look at all the parts of the bike, and notice if anything is amiss: spokes or bolts loose or missing, anything like that. Third, it makes it possible to touch it, to make repairs or adjustments.
I ride in the rain a lot in the winter. I love rain and i really enjoy riding in the rain. One evening last week i took a couple of cyclists from Portland up through the little car-free urban rainforest of Interlaken Park, and up the back side of Capitol Hill on Interlake Drive in the pouring rain. It was a glorious ride, very joyful.
The only drawback of riding in the rain is that a lot gets kicked up and stuck to my bike: mud and leaves of course, but the worst is this thick black mudlike substance which is what happens when the sandy black grit that sheds off car tires mixes with water. This nasty car offal can cover much of the bike, and all of the wheels. The braking surfaces on my rims get a thick layer of this sludge covering them and that can really effect my braking ability and can even damage the rims. The reflective strips on my tires get covered with with this slurry cutting their effectiveness. This slime is so extensive and so nasty that any time i touch the lower part of the bike, i get this black grease on my hands. And it won't wash off of my fingers very easily. Some people think it is chain grease or oil, but it's not, it's little grains of car tire.
When i want to work on my bike, when something needs fixing, or if i'm going to take my bike to the shop, i always wash this crap off before i do. Yesterday riding home i heard some rattles that i want to check out. Today i am going to take a look at the bike, tighten some bolts, fix a few small things, make sure everything is tight and well adjusted so this was the time to wash it.
I fill a small bucket with natural dish soap and hot water. I take the bike out into the carport and spray it down with the hose. I use a wide setting on the nozzle and avoid aiming at the bearings in the wheels, bottom bracket and headset. The bike doesn't get any wetter than when i'm riding in the rain, so nothing can be damaged. We've all heard horror stories of cyclists who used a pressure washer on their bike, forcing all the grease out of the bearings. I'm careful to avoid anything like that. Then i take a sponge and scrub down the frame, and components.
The main part of it is scrubbing the wheels, the rims and the tires, but also the spokes. It's very satisfying work! The rims start off looking all nasty and covered with the black slime, and i just scrub it off. It doesn't take very long. I pay particular attention to the braking surfaces on the rim and the surface of the brake pads themselves (that alone makes a huge difference!). Then i rinse it off. I do each side of each wheel at a time, so i rinse four times. It only takes 10 or 15 minutes, even when it's really bad. Sometimes i will scrub the chain and cogs with a toothbrush and degreaser, but usually not.
Now my bike is really clean and i can work on it. Everything will last a little longer, and when i pedal out the driveway tomorrow, it will ride smoother, shift better and brake more crisply. And it looks pretty sharp too!
I try to do it a couple of times a month in the winter. It's not just to make it look nice, although it does look nice now, sparkling out on the balcony in the sun. There are three more important reasons for washing my bike. First, it rides better; i'll get back to that. Second, i get a chance to look at all the parts of the bike, and notice if anything is amiss: spokes or bolts loose or missing, anything like that. Third, it makes it possible to touch it, to make repairs or adjustments.
I ride in the rain a lot in the winter. I love rain and i really enjoy riding in the rain. One evening last week i took a couple of cyclists from Portland up through the little car-free urban rainforest of Interlaken Park, and up the back side of Capitol Hill on Interlake Drive in the pouring rain. It was a glorious ride, very joyful.
The only drawback of riding in the rain is that a lot gets kicked up and stuck to my bike: mud and leaves of course, but the worst is this thick black mudlike substance which is what happens when the sandy black grit that sheds off car tires mixes with water. This nasty car offal can cover much of the bike, and all of the wheels. The braking surfaces on my rims get a thick layer of this sludge covering them and that can really effect my braking ability and can even damage the rims. The reflective strips on my tires get covered with with this slurry cutting their effectiveness. This slime is so extensive and so nasty that any time i touch the lower part of the bike, i get this black grease on my hands. And it won't wash off of my fingers very easily. Some people think it is chain grease or oil, but it's not, it's little grains of car tire.
When i want to work on my bike, when something needs fixing, or if i'm going to take my bike to the shop, i always wash this crap off before i do. Yesterday riding home i heard some rattles that i want to check out. Today i am going to take a look at the bike, tighten some bolts, fix a few small things, make sure everything is tight and well adjusted so this was the time to wash it.
I fill a small bucket with natural dish soap and hot water. I take the bike out into the carport and spray it down with the hose. I use a wide setting on the nozzle and avoid aiming at the bearings in the wheels, bottom bracket and headset. The bike doesn't get any wetter than when i'm riding in the rain, so nothing can be damaged. We've all heard horror stories of cyclists who used a pressure washer on their bike, forcing all the grease out of the bearings. I'm careful to avoid anything like that. Then i take a sponge and scrub down the frame, and components.
The main part of it is scrubbing the wheels, the rims and the tires, but also the spokes. It's very satisfying work! The rims start off looking all nasty and covered with the black slime, and i just scrub it off. It doesn't take very long. I pay particular attention to the braking surfaces on the rim and the surface of the brake pads themselves (that alone makes a huge difference!). Then i rinse it off. I do each side of each wheel at a time, so i rinse four times. It only takes 10 or 15 minutes, even when it's really bad. Sometimes i will scrub the chain and cogs with a toothbrush and degreaser, but usually not.
Now my bike is really clean and i can work on it. Everything will last a little longer, and when i pedal out the driveway tomorrow, it will ride smoother, shift better and brake more crisply. And it looks pretty sharp too!
14 March 2012
Seattle-henge
I saw some media attention last summer given to a group of people celebrating Manhattan-henge -- July 12th and May 31st the days when the sun sets directly in line with the streets of Manhattan, spectacularly sinking between the towering buildings of New York City. Manhattan is canted 29 degrees north of due west, so the streets point at 300°. So i thought i'd figure out when Seattle-henge would be. On that evening, at sunset, you should be able to look west over the Olympic Mountains at and see the sun set directly down the middle of a Seattle street. Pretty cool!
Seattle has really astonishing sunsets almost every night, especially this time of year when the clouds put on a great show, so this could be amazing. The sun sets behind the front range of the Olympic Mountains and you can follow the mountain peaks it sets behind from your location from day to day, as the sunset moves north in the spring and south in the fall. There is a common legend in Seattle that on the Equinox the sun sets BETWEEN the peaks of The Brothers (Alfred & Edward). It turns out that depends on your exact location, but The Brothers are close to due west of Seattle.
Seattle has three different street grids, due to the competition between three pioneers all trying to get the city built on their land grant. This has turned into one main street grid that covers all of King County and two tiny sections downtown.
The grid at my house on Capitol Hill is the main street grid, based in Pioneer Square It is aligned so that the streets are directly east-west, (270°) and the Avenues directly north-south (0°).
The Central Business District streets, (in yellow above) aligned with the shoreline are canted at 238°.
Belltown is very odd, with the streets canted far south of west at 220° meaning that the Avenues are more likely to get a sunset than the streets, they are north of west at 310°.
The farthest north that the sun sets from Seattle is 307° on the Summer Solstice (day length 15 hours, 59 minutes). On the Winter Solstice the sun sets 72° farther south at 235° (day length 8 hours, 25 minutes 53% of the length of the longest day). The sunRISE gets as far north as 53° and as far south as 125°.
From Capitol Hill, and the rest of King County, since the streets are due west, the Seattle-henge is on the Spring and Autumn Equinoxs. Watch on these days to see the sunset straight down Seattle's streets!
In 2012 it's:
Mar 17 sunset at 19:19 PDT,
Mar 18 sunset at 19:20 PDT
Sep 23 sunset at 19:04 PDT.
Belltown is canted too far north and never gets a direct street aligned sunset. For most of June the sun sets only 3° south of a direct line up the Avenues, but it never reaches it completely.
Since the Central Business District streets are at 238°, the 2012 Seattle-henge dates for the Central Business District are:
Jan 11 sunset at 16:39 PST,
Jan 12 sunset at 16:41 PST,
Jan 13 sunset at 16:42 PST,
Nov 27 sunset at 16:22 PST,
Nov 28 sunset at 16:21 PST,
Nov 29 sunset at 16:21 PST,
Nov 30 sunset at 16:20 PST.
Now this should work for Sunrise too, on the main street grid. (The sunrise is not visible from downtown.) Looking east towards the Cascade mountains you should see the sun RISE directly up a Seattle Street on the equinox,
Mar 18 sunrise at 07:15 PDT
Sep 23 sunrise at 06:58 PDT.
Seattle has really astonishing sunsets almost every night, especially this time of year when the clouds put on a great show, so this could be amazing. The sun sets behind the front range of the Olympic Mountains and you can follow the mountain peaks it sets behind from your location from day to day, as the sunset moves north in the spring and south in the fall. There is a common legend in Seattle that on the Equinox the sun sets BETWEEN the peaks of The Brothers (Alfred & Edward). It turns out that depends on your exact location, but The Brothers are close to due west of Seattle.
Seattle has three different street grids, due to the competition between three pioneers all trying to get the city built on their land grant. This has turned into one main street grid that covers all of King County and two tiny sections downtown.
The grid at my house on Capitol Hill is the main street grid, based in Pioneer Square It is aligned so that the streets are directly east-west, (270°) and the Avenues directly north-south (0°).
The Central Business District streets, (in yellow above) aligned with the shoreline are canted at 238°.
Belltown is very odd, with the streets canted far south of west at 220° meaning that the Avenues are more likely to get a sunset than the streets, they are north of west at 310°.
The farthest north that the sun sets from Seattle is 307° on the Summer Solstice (day length 15 hours, 59 minutes). On the Winter Solstice the sun sets 72° farther south at 235° (day length 8 hours, 25 minutes 53% of the length of the longest day). The sunRISE gets as far north as 53° and as far south as 125°.
From Capitol Hill, and the rest of King County, since the streets are due west, the Seattle-henge is on the Spring and Autumn Equinoxs. Watch on these days to see the sunset straight down Seattle's streets!
In 2012 it's:
Mar 17 sunset at 19:19 PDT,
Mar 18 sunset at 19:20 PDT
Sep 23 sunset at 19:04 PDT.
Belltown is canted too far north and never gets a direct street aligned sunset. For most of June the sun sets only 3° south of a direct line up the Avenues, but it never reaches it completely.
Since the Central Business District streets are at 238°, the 2012 Seattle-henge dates for the Central Business District are:
Jan 11 sunset at 16:39 PST,
Jan 12 sunset at 16:41 PST,
Jan 13 sunset at 16:42 PST,
Nov 27 sunset at 16:22 PST,
Nov 28 sunset at 16:21 PST,
Nov 29 sunset at 16:21 PST,
Nov 30 sunset at 16:20 PST.
Now this should work for Sunrise too, on the main street grid. (The sunrise is not visible from downtown.) Looking east towards the Cascade mountains you should see the sun RISE directly up a Seattle Street on the equinox,
Mar 18 sunrise at 07:15 PDT
Sep 23 sunrise at 06:58 PDT.
13 March 2012
Seattle Has Four Seasons
I ran some errands this afternoon. It was cold and clear. About 35 degrees, blue sky. Very nice.
I left home on and rode a mile up hill to my first errand, parked and locked up under the clear blue sky. I was only there about 3 minutes, so very soon i was riding again. As i rode along the crest of the hill, about half a mile to my next errand, the west wind kicked up and blew me around a bit - it was fun. I bought a cookie and chatted a bit at the bakery and was soon on the road again.
I rode to the food Co-op, another half a mile. As I was in line at the Co-op it got very dark and started raining hard. I took my shopping basket out to the bike as the rain changed to graupel (also often called winter hail). It was coming down very hard. In the 2 or 3 minutes it took to pack the food in the trunk bag of my bike, a quarter inch layer accumulated on my seat. I thought it was really cool. A couple of people sitting at the coffee bar by the window were smiling at me. I smiled back like, isn't this great! I think they were actually laughing at me.
When i took my basket back into the Co-op, there was a crowd around the door staring at falling ice (or refusing to go out in it, i don't really know which). I rode a few blocks north on 16th Ave E in the heavy shower of pellets. Because it was graupel and not rain or snow, i wasn't getting wet! It was fun riding in it.
Then i turned west to go down the hill towards my house. Riding into the (strong) wind, downhill, with that graupel coming into my face was a challenge.
When I got down to 11th Ave E it wasn't graupel anymore; it was big fluffy snowflakes coming down very heavy! Visibility was about 50 feet. I loved it. It was snowing so hard that there was little bits of accumulation at the base of trees. I went through Cal Anderson Park and the plastic turf soccer field was completely covered, completely white.
By the time i got to the library about 8 blocks later the snow was turning wet.
When I left the library 10 minutes later, the sun was out, the sky was blue and it was noticeably warmer, i had to take my sweater off for the ride 3 blocks home.
Just another Seattle bike ride. I was gone slightly over an hour. Rain, snow, sleet, sun, wind. Seattle in the spring is always like this.
Who says Seattle doesn't have four seasons? We have them all in one hour!
I left home on and rode a mile up hill to my first errand, parked and locked up under the clear blue sky. I was only there about 3 minutes, so very soon i was riding again. As i rode along the crest of the hill, about half a mile to my next errand, the west wind kicked up and blew me around a bit - it was fun. I bought a cookie and chatted a bit at the bakery and was soon on the road again.
I rode to the food Co-op, another half a mile. As I was in line at the Co-op it got very dark and started raining hard. I took my shopping basket out to the bike as the rain changed to graupel (also often called winter hail). It was coming down very hard. In the 2 or 3 minutes it took to pack the food in the trunk bag of my bike, a quarter inch layer accumulated on my seat. I thought it was really cool. A couple of people sitting at the coffee bar by the window were smiling at me. I smiled back like, isn't this great! I think they were actually laughing at me.
When i took my basket back into the Co-op, there was a crowd around the door staring at falling ice (or refusing to go out in it, i don't really know which). I rode a few blocks north on 16th Ave E in the heavy shower of pellets. Because it was graupel and not rain or snow, i wasn't getting wet! It was fun riding in it.
Then i turned west to go down the hill towards my house. Riding into the (strong) wind, downhill, with that graupel coming into my face was a challenge.
When I got down to 11th Ave E it wasn't graupel anymore; it was big fluffy snowflakes coming down very heavy! Visibility was about 50 feet. I loved it. It was snowing so hard that there was little bits of accumulation at the base of trees. I went through Cal Anderson Park and the plastic turf soccer field was completely covered, completely white.
By the time i got to the library about 8 blocks later the snow was turning wet.
When I left the library 10 minutes later, the sun was out, the sky was blue and it was noticeably warmer, i had to take my sweater off for the ride 3 blocks home.
Just another Seattle bike ride. I was gone slightly over an hour. Rain, snow, sleet, sun, wind. Seattle in the spring is always like this.
Who says Seattle doesn't have four seasons? We have them all in one hour!
07 March 2012
Capitol Hill tunnel is almost finished!
A few minutes ago on my way home i walked around the Capitol Hill station dig site. I wanted to see if Togo, the tunnel boring machine coming from the University Station, had finished it's tunnel.
I really want to see it break through the wall if i can!
None of the windows from the sidewalk have a direct view of the wall that it will break through when it arrives at Capitol Hill station. I could see close to that point from one window and another window is directly above the wall, right where Twice Told Tales used to be. It doesn't look like they have broken through yet but there is a lot of activity. They have built a bridge for workers to cross over the wall and they have cleared out the floor of the station where the breakthrough will happen. The big mud pit where the dirt dug out of the downtown tunnel is being dumped before being loaded into trucks is much smaller now.
I walked the route for a few blocks and it seemed very clear from the placement of surveying equipment, bore test holes and shake measurements that the digging machine was under Thomas Street, between Broadway and Federal Ave. I couldn't feel any shaking.
That's only 1 block away, 200 or 300 feet left to go! I think that means it could break through this weekend.
I would love to actually see the machine break through! I know it's a long shot, but i'm going to go by there Saturday afternoon after work and i'll drop by a couple times on Sunday too. I won't be around Monday and Tuesday but i'll check in the evenings. So i hope it happens on Sunday or Wednesday and maybe i'll get to see it!
UPDATE Monday: I looked in again today and the breakthrough has not happened. I asked a worker at the gate at Broadway & Denny and she said since that tunnel is being dug by another company she has no idea. The worker at the gate on John seemed certain the breakthrough will happen on March 20th. I'll be there watching!
UPDATE Tuesday March 20th: When i got home at 8pm they had not broken through and they told me it had been delayed from 3pm to 12 midnight. At 10:30 i went out and walked around the entire project; as before i couldn't find any good place to view from. There were two TV stations there, as well as newspapers and bloggers. I tried to talk my way in with the media, but it didn't work. Eventually i found a window on Broadway with a little bit of a view. I stood there for 3 hours watching the workers inside, but i slowly came to the conclusion that my view was not going to see the breakthrough whenever it actually happened and i got cold and went home. The newspaper said they broke through at 4am. There was a picture of me in the newspaper looking in the window.
I am surprised and a bit angry that there was no attempt to let the public watch the breakthrough. I understand the security issues, but it wouldn't be hard to have a small roped off area with bleachers. I really hope they do that for the second tunnel next month, but i'm not hopeful.
UPDATE April 5th: Yesterday i heard back from Sound Transit about the possibility of seeing the second machine breakthrough. They said NO WAY. They also told me that breakthrough was due to happen this afternoon. I walked down there this evening and there was a lot of activity, but as before all the viewpoints into the site can't see that end of the hole. It's great that the tunnel digging is finished, but it's very frustrating to be so close and not be able to see the finish.
I really want to see it break through the wall if i can!
None of the windows from the sidewalk have a direct view of the wall that it will break through when it arrives at Capitol Hill station. I could see close to that point from one window and another window is directly above the wall, right where Twice Told Tales used to be. It doesn't look like they have broken through yet but there is a lot of activity. They have built a bridge for workers to cross over the wall and they have cleared out the floor of the station where the breakthrough will happen. The big mud pit where the dirt dug out of the downtown tunnel is being dumped before being loaded into trucks is much smaller now.
I walked the route for a few blocks and it seemed very clear from the placement of surveying equipment, bore test holes and shake measurements that the digging machine was under Thomas Street, between Broadway and Federal Ave. I couldn't feel any shaking.
That's only 1 block away, 200 or 300 feet left to go! I think that means it could break through this weekend.
I would love to actually see the machine break through! I know it's a long shot, but i'm going to go by there Saturday afternoon after work and i'll drop by a couple times on Sunday too. I won't be around Monday and Tuesday but i'll check in the evenings. So i hope it happens on Sunday or Wednesday and maybe i'll get to see it!
UPDATE Monday: I looked in again today and the breakthrough has not happened. I asked a worker at the gate at Broadway & Denny and she said since that tunnel is being dug by another company she has no idea. The worker at the gate on John seemed certain the breakthrough will happen on March 20th. I'll be there watching!
UPDATE Tuesday March 20th: When i got home at 8pm they had not broken through and they told me it had been delayed from 3pm to 12 midnight. At 10:30 i went out and walked around the entire project; as before i couldn't find any good place to view from. There were two TV stations there, as well as newspapers and bloggers. I tried to talk my way in with the media, but it didn't work. Eventually i found a window on Broadway with a little bit of a view. I stood there for 3 hours watching the workers inside, but i slowly came to the conclusion that my view was not going to see the breakthrough whenever it actually happened and i got cold and went home. The newspaper said they broke through at 4am. There was a picture of me in the newspaper looking in the window.
I am surprised and a bit angry that there was no attempt to let the public watch the breakthrough. I understand the security issues, but it wouldn't be hard to have a small roped off area with bleachers. I really hope they do that for the second tunnel next month, but i'm not hopeful.
 | |
| the view of the hole, the media tent and my little window photo from the Sound Transit webcam |
 |
| That's me peering fruitlessly in the window. photo from the Seattle P-I the next day. |
 |
| The wall waiting for the breakthrough.I drew in the approximate line of the lower limit of my view from the window on Broadway. photo from Capitol Hill Seattle Blog |
UPDATE April 5th: Yesterday i heard back from Sound Transit about the possibility of seeing the second machine breakthrough. They said NO WAY. They also told me that breakthrough was due to happen this afternoon. I walked down there this evening and there was a lot of activity, but as before all the viewpoints into the site can't see that end of the hole. It's great that the tunnel digging is finished, but it's very frustrating to be so close and not be able to see the finish.
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