S24O

I never knew ships made so much noise!

The rumbling sounds like a train, i guess it's the engines!  I can tell which direction the ships are going in by the sound of the waves, if the wake is moving north or south down the beach next to me.  One sounds VERY close to shore, the engine noise sounds like it's coming right through the campground and the waves from the wake sound like they are about to splash us.

I'm very snug and happy in my bivy sack looking up at Mars and the big dipper as i doze off.  The waves from the wakes of the big container ships cruising up and down the center of Puget Sound are rolling in about 30 feet away from me.  My riding buddies are in 4 tents spread out behind me, my bike leaning on a log next to me.

The total mileage for the ride to get here?  Nine miles.

It's a beautiful cold, clear night, my face poking through the snug hood looking up at the stars.  I'm very tired.  I sleep well.  I wake up in the middle of the night and adjust the extra fleece blanket lining my sleeping bag.  Warm again, i quickly fall back asleep, but not before catching a glimpse of an orange crescent moon rising over Seattle, across the fjord from me.

How did we get here?

We met at the ferry terminal in downtown Seattle at 5 pm Friday.  Hanna came directly from work and she and i rode the 2 miles from Capitol Hill through heavy rush hour traffic.  We made all the lights!

Davey, Donald, Linda were waiting for us at outside the ticket booth.  Kei Chi came just to see us off!  We got in line and, just moments before the ferry started loading, Ryan & Emily rolled up completing our group. The ferry ride was, as always, fun: comfortable and very scenic.  When we got off the ferry, we stopped on the main drag in Winslow for a bite to eat.  We took our time.

When we set out from Winslow on our long ride for the day, it was sunset.  Dusk fell as we rode through the ferns and evergreens and multi-million dollar houses that fill the forest of Bainbridge Island.  Our lights guided us to our campsite. The seven of us rode seven miles through the woods.  Venus was shining brightly when we arrived in the meadow by the salt water where we would sleep.  We chose sites as close to the water as possible.  It only cost $5 per person!  (Yet another way we saved money by not driving!)

I tried an experiment on this ride.  It wasn't a planned experiment. I woke up Friday morning clearly still sick.  I was extremely tired and foggy headed.  When Davey called and asked if i was still going with him on his ride, i hesitated, and contemplated as best i could in that condition. It's no fun being sick. If i stayed home i would lie on the couch and feel awful.  If i went on the ride, i would feel awful lying under the stars by the water with my friends.   That was an easy choice.

I've always believed that fresh air and exercise are very helpful when we are sick, unless you have a fever of course.  The whole ride i was moving as if in slow motion.  Riding was strange: my legs felt strong, but the rest of me felt very weak.  I felt like i rode 90 miles, not nine. I was very tired lying there staring up at the stars.

Fay-Bainbridge Park used to be a state park, but Washington State is closing it's parks, so the city of Bainbridge Island took it over. As we were setting up our tents the park manager came by to say hello.  He was very friendly and welcoming... and he sold us firewood!  We settled in and ate a bit more.

My geography is pretty good, especially of this area, but i was quite confused by what appeared to be an island in the middle of Puget Sound.  A big dark hill blocking downtown Seattle.  We stared at it for a while as we set up our tents. We finally figured out that it was the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle, and it was the strange angle that was confusing us.

I was very fuzzy headed from being sick, it was a little like being in a cartoon, but i was very happy to be there with good company, gorgeous stars and a great view across the water.  We sat around the fire drinking hot cocoa and chatting until Mars was high in the sky when we all crawled off to sleep.

I was happy and i slept well, i could see my bike, the logs and the stars as i dozed off.  When i awoke briefly in the middle of the night i flipped my bivy sack's rain hood up over my head, blocking my view of the stars.  I tried a new method of keeping the hood off my face on this trip: bicycle cable housing fed through with the drawstring!  It worked great.
 
I awoke to bright sunshine and a gorgeous view across the water.  I had slept late, at least late for camping -- it was almost 2 hours after sunrise! Davey was already up and had started the fire.

Hanna got up quick and left us.  She had to go back to work. That's the idea of a sub-24-hour-overnight:  to escape from town, to ride a little and get a chance to sleep outdoors.  Possibly even leave from work and return to work in the morning.  Fay-Bainbridge Park is perfect for this.

After we all ate a bit of breakfast we hopped on the bikes and decided to go around the very hilly island instead of directly back to the ferry.  I didn't have it in me.  I did pretty well for an hour and a half, but then i lost it.  Everyone else continued on while i took a 45 minute nap in the grass.  I thought seriously about pulling out the bivy sack, but i figured that would be weird since i was essentially in someone's front yard.  When i woke up i took a short cut, SLOWLY back to Winslow where i waited in a coffee shop for the rest of the group. Seeing as i was sick, in hindsight i realize i probably should have left with Hanna first thing in the morning.

It was an absolutely great time.  Total time spent, from my walking out my door to walking back in again was just over 22 hours.  S24O.  Sub 24 Hour Overnight! 

On this map of our route, yellow is our Friday evening ride.  

Red is the Saturday group ride.  

Purple is my short cut and green is the route of the rest of the group.
The blue dotted line is the view of downtown Seattle we had, identifying the mystery island as Discovery Park and Magnola.

Finally, the creaking is gone.

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.

Worst Day Of The Year Ride

Bike Works' first community ride of the year was tonight. The name is more of a reference to tomorrow (Valentines Day is no fun for those of us who are single), than the rain.

It didn't rain.

We had a good group and a very fun ride up to Fremont, using the wonderful new connector trail under the Ballard Bridge.

(The yellow lines are bridges! The topo maps don't know that there is a road hanging above the canal or the valley and actually adds in that elevation as if we went down and back up. So i drew in the major bridges we crossed.)

Major Taylor Ride

Tonight was the Major Taylor ride, a fun Bike Works tradition in honor of Marshall Major Taylor and other November birthdays. Major Taylor was an amazing turn of the century bicycle racer and the first American World Champion.

I stopped for a milkshake at Molly Moons for fuel and waited to see if any other Capitol Hill folks might join me for the ride south, but no one did. Typically this is a rainy night ride. It was quite cold on the ride down to Bike Works, but no rain.

We gathered in the classroom at Bike Works and visited. Chris is our regular volunteer who lives the farthest away from Bike Works (she lives in Chicago!). She was well dressed for the occasion (circa 1900).

Chris Z & Donald V

I greeted people, finished my milkshake, had a nice conversation with Max, and put on several extra layers as i'd been cold on the ride down.

We herded cats enough to get a nice group photo.

Steve, Asher, Chris, Linda, Frank, Max, Ken, Joe, Donald, Davey and me

And then a few more people showed up.  We were glad to see them!

Andy, Tom, Danny, Catherine

And, what the heck, another group photo out in front of the shop, with our bikes this time. (After we turned off all the lights!  We had 15 people total... Max sat out this photo (actually he took the photo) because was planning on going home after we climbed Beacon Hill.  We all, of course, wanted him along.

Frank, Chris, Andy, Linda, Asher, Tom, Mark, Ken, Catherine, Donald, Joe, Davey, Danny, Steve

Departing Bike Works, Davey took us south a bit and up Orcas Street S where we picked up the Chief Sealth Trail for the rest of the climb and to get across Beacon Hill.

I try hard to let the camera be secondary to the experience, i hate it when the camera becomes the focus (pun intended) and for a moment tonight i let that happen.  On the final climb on the trail near the top of the hill i looked behind me and there were 14 headlights in a close line on the dark winding trail.  It looked very very cool and i sprinted ahead away from my friends, to the top of the hill to get a photo.  Right then the camera battery died.  I quickly changed it, but by then the snaking line of headlights had passed me while i was messing with the camera.

Then we took 15th Ave S up to Holgate and started down the super steep hill to the strange new trail.  The first time i rode this trail back in the summer i was pretty shocked at the horrible... well, ridiculous end, intersecting an arterial in the middle of a very long, incredibly steep hill.  There's really just nowhere to go.  Willie Weir recently wrote a good post on this piece of infrastructure in his neighborhood.  We were going to join this trail at this awkward ending point, still a challenging right turn on the big descent.

The trail itself, once we were all safely on it, was extremely nice.  Wide, smooth and fun, surprisingly well lit, and great views of downtown at night.  From there we cut through the busy International District to the waterfront, where we all cheered the partially torn down Alaska Way Viaduct.

My camera which does well on bumpy roads in the daytime, didn't do great on the bumpy road in the dark, so the photos are more artisitic than informative, but i like them nevertheless. 

Asher carrying a baguette - Grant Peterson style.

Max waves at the camera as he speeds by.

Sweep rider Ken enters the trail from Holgate at speed.

Happy cyclists on the new trail.

Max

Chris

Clearly Asher's reflective jacket works.  

I had the camera so unfortunately there are no photos of me in my wool cap, wool shirt, wool socks and awesome new ($5 at Goodwill) wool knickers.  Despite our fast downhill ride, i felt very overdressed with the leg warmers, socks and turtleneck i added at Bike Works.  I got very sweaty.

On Beacon Hill Max couldn't resist our company and decided to continue the ride.  Good decision!  We continued down the working waterfront to Harbor Island, took the nice bike swing under the bridge and over the lower West Seattle bridge which led us directly to the Pigeon Point trail.  This is a very nice trail, it is an important connection -- it opens up South Seattle Community College, and makes possible rides like ours to White Center.  The entire trail is probably 200 feet long.  It just links the Harbor Island trail with 22nd Ave SW. 

We had a short but quite steep three blocks of climbing, and then a long flat ride along the edge of a ridge on 21st Ave SW.  This is one of my favorite places in the city to ride.  You ride along the knife edge of the ridge for a mile and a half, with middle class and lower middle class houses on either side. It's one of the few places you have a view in both directions (East and West). I don't know why i love this section so much, it's certainly beautiful, it's just one of my favorite rides. Very satisfying.

A final uphill push up to Roxbury and across the city line -- we were out of Seattle and in unincorporated King County.  Half a block later we stopped for Pizza!

After Pizza we took the short, route on arterial with a long fast descent to the 1st Ave S bridge and Georgetown where the group split up to go in different directions towards home.   It was a great night, great people and a really really fun ride.  We rode 16.5 miles together, with almost 700 feet of climbing (which makes it a slightly less hilly than average ride for the Seattle area).

All told, with the ride down, and the return home, i rode 30.2 miles with 1400 feet of climbing.

Thursday Night Route Choices

One of the great things that has happened in the last couple of years at Bike Works is the social aspect. When i started volunteering at the bike repair work parties on Thursday nights i always enjoyed the ride home. Those night time rides are glorious: the streets are empty, wet or dry, cold or warm, it's just so nice to be out in the night. But it was a bit of a downer riding alone.

In the last 12 to 18 months we've developed a nice group of folks who ride north together almost every week. It's an enormous amount of fun -- a bicycle gang running through the dark city at 10pm. It's social and all bike geeky too. We chat and argue and enjoy riding together. We learn from each other: from conversation of course, from riding styles, from bikes, and we learn different parts of the city from each other.

One of the very cool things about these rides is the way people slowly peel off the group as we roll through the city from neighborhood to neighborhood. We might start out with 6 or 7 people, someone will peel off after a mile, and then a mile later someone else will peel off. By the time we get to Broadway there might be only a couple of us, sometimes more, sometimes fewer. I'd love to see a map plot animation of each person peeling off.

Every week as we gather out front of Bike Works preparing to ride home, there is the issue of which route we will take this week. It's about 6 miles from Columbia City to Broadway. There are 7 basic routes with plenty of variants on each. Each route has benefits and drawbacks, supporters and opposition. We've ridden all of them, and most have at one time or another been the default route.

I draw many of my rides on my topo maps, and sometimes take a GPS with me, so i made an image with all seven rides on it, measured the distance and total climb on each. I was a little surprised that 5 of the different routes are essentially the same distance, one is a bit longer, and one is significantly shorter. I thought there would be more variance.

In blue, the beautiful Lake Washington Boulevard route is the longest at 7.0 miles and has the most climbing with 537 feet.

In purple is the zig-zag route, or the 31st route (i call it Melanie's route, because she's the one who showed it to me). It's 6.5 miles with 462 feet of climbing.

In green, the Beacon Hill route is 6.3 miles, with 495 feet of climbing.

In red, a little flatter is the city's official marked Letitia route. It's 6.2 miles and 399 feet up.

In white i've occasionally ridden via Renton Ave. It's 6.2 miles and 447 feet up.

In yellow, directly up MLK is 6.1 miles with 384 up, often seen as a 'quick' route.

And in black, mixing with the heavy traffic directly on Rainier Blvd the whole way is only 4.3 miles with 374 feet of climbing.

I usually rate the hilliness of a ride by calculating feet per mile of climbing. All of these routes come in above my arbitrary Seattle average of 50.0 feet per mile; most are around 65 feet per mile. Strangely that makes Rainier the steepest, at 88.0 feet per mile -- but probably only because it is so such a shorter distance.

The Cyclo- Jalopy (again)

This weekend, i was lucky enough to get to ride the Haulin' Colin built People Powered Parade Float again. And, if this is possible, it was even more fun this time!

We collected the wonderful machine from up on Beacon Hill at Walker's house where we left it last time. This machine has 7 pedaling stations installed upon an old Toyota Pickup chassis. The drivers' seat, transmission, clutch driveshaft, differential, brakes, wheels, tires, steering wheel, suspension and even the speedometer from the Toyota are still intact and are in use in this vehicle..

We pedaled across Beacon Hill. The ride up the slight rise at the top of the ridge of was hard work,

Juliett, Matt, me, Kye, Emily, Dylan, Tom, Davey & Adonia

Davey, me, Tom, Emily, Dylan, Danny, Matt & Adonia

Kye and his dad

Daviy Oil & me & Tom Furtulo pedaling hard uphill

but then we got to Colombian Way which would take us way down hill and all the way to Columbia City. We went very fast!

Near the bottom of the hill, the duct taped tire came apart, slapping the body and making a hell of a racket.

It wasn't serious but it did give us a bit of a scare. We limped the rest of the way to Bike Works. We parked the Octobike by the warehouse and went into the Thursday night work party at Bike Works for refreshments and circle time..

First thing on Saturday, before the parade, Ryan, the amazing lead mechanic at Bike Works went and got us a new tire. And he got it using a bike trailer; i love it!

The purpose of this trip was to move the vehicle down to Bike Works so it could be in the Rainier Heritage Parade on Saturday. We made costumes, decorated the machine and tried to name it. Megan and i tried to come up with a name based on cycle jalopy, but it didn't sound great. I think Chris hit on it a few days later it with Octobike.

Johnathon brought his banjo and Davey his Uke, so we had music on board too! It was a very hot day, and i'm not good in the heat. We tried to stay in the shade while we were waiting.

Davey asked who was going to 'drive', that is, steer and shift. The previous times i had 'ridden' the Octobike i had been pedaling. Since i can drive a standard transmission i volunteered, i figured i'd let everyone else have a turn at pedaling. I actually had fun shifting!! It was just like my old Toyota back in the 1980s.

So i drove in the parade. We had more people pedaling than needed so Juliett decided to show off her AMAZING hula hoop skills. She walked next to the Octobike part of the time, but she got up on the platform and performed while we moved along. It was great -- the crowd LOVED it.

Malia, Emily, Danny, Adonia, Juliett, Matt, Dylan, me, Davey, Johnathon, Meghan, Zack

Perhaps the highlight started off as a danger, loomed towards possible disaster and then turned out spectacular, when a little kid started to run in front of us to grab the candy we were throwing. I jammed on the brakes, forgetting that there was person standing hula-hooping on board. She was knocked off, but she managed to gracefully leap over Emily pedaling in one of the front recumbent positions and she, Juliett, landed on her feet while still hula hooping!!! The crowd went wild! They thought it was part of the act. I apologized to her after the parade.

When the parade was over the people walking were directed to the left into the parking lot next to Bike Works. That would've been ideal for us. But instead, the cops directed us down the steep hill on Alaska St and then even further, and tried go get us to go down Genesee.

So now we had to get up the hill again, and somehow avoid the Parade route. We moved past the football fields on Oregon St and waited for an 18 wheeler to turn around. Then we went up the hill on Rainier Blvd and on Alaska, with traffic. The cop at the intersection we wanted to turn left on was pretty snarky but we were polite to him. We were all pretty happy to pull up in front of Bike Works and find some shade.

We enjoyed the Summer Streets Ciclovita closure of Rainier and talked up Bike Works at the Bike Works booth. Here i am explaining the Octobike to Elizabeth and her family.

Summer streets was over at three and we were going to have to move the Octobike back UP Beacon Hill. Just before 3 good friend Joe showed up. We had been kind of expecting him earlier, he's a strong cyclist and we needed him. He showed up with his friend Chris which was good, but also with a cane and a slipped disc, which was bad. He could barely move.

Once he sat in the Octobike it was clear that he wished he could ride. I convinced him to be our driver while we all did the hard work. He came along!

In this photo you can see that the Octobike still has the brakes, transmission and everything from the truck!

Davey was quite worried that we would not have enough people to power the vehicle up the big hill, but when it came time to leave we had about 22 people volunteering. About 12 of us went. We pedaled out to MLK Blvd and then down the busy street. Davey yelled to people at bus stops that due to budget cuts, we were the bus. I thought it was funny.

We waited a while in the shade at the bottom of the hill while Davey & Danny & Adonia scored us some much needed food.

The we started to crank up the hill. It was very hot, and we were were all suffering but we decided to go up the gorgeous Olmsted parkway Cheasty Blvd which is heavily shaded.

Ryan, Johnathon, me & Joe in the shade
photo by Chris Zömbory

We had enough people that a couple could push and one or two could rest while the rest pedaled. We switched out frequently.

Davey, Danny, Chris, Johnathon, Joe, Emily, Matt & Adonia crank it up Cheasty Blvd in the heat

Johnathon, Joe & me

I took a turn in one of the front, recumbent spots. It's HARD work. I used muscles i don't normally use. I didn't last long.

Chris sweats it out pedaling up Cheasty;
She didn't know her visit to Seattle would be this much fun!

We celebrated once we got to the top and coasted down to Walker's house again. We were all happy to get some food and cold drinks -- it was hard work and took a couple of hours, but it was great fun. I'd do it again.

Here's our route.

BB PPPP & Colin's machine

At Bike Works a few weeks ago Ryan, a fellow volunteer, asked if anyone wanted to help pedal a weird & wonderful 8 person human powered Machine in a parade. How could i say no?! I finally got to ride the legendary Spirit of Muckle Flugga (future blog post there!) in a parade a few years ago -- i couldn't pass this up.

The Spirit of Muckle Flugga

This parade was the Beacon Bikes People Powered Park Parade. Iit was up on Beacon Hill and the Machine was not. So Friday afternoon, after a significant amount of logistical planning, my friend Aurilee and i bicycled to Beacon Hill, locked up our bikes at the light rail station, took light rail and the #48 bus to the Central District and met up with Ryan, Liz from Bike Works, and a cool group of folks in order to MOVE THE MACHINE. We needed to position it for tomorrow's parade. We only had to go 3 and half miles.

We climbed aboard and started figuring out The Machine.

photo by Aurilee Gamboa

This wonderful Machine was built by the amazing Haulin' Colin. It's built on the chassis of a Toyota pickup truck. It still has the wheels, breaks, drive shaft, universal joint, transmission, steering, even the speedometer. But the drive, the power, is the three upright and four recumbent cycling positions. The driver doesn't pedal, but she does shift for all of us. Getting into fourth was really nice.

From the start point we had to immediately head up a big hill and almost over the ridge before we could turn south towards Jackson St. When we started up the hill; i didn't think we could make it, it was HARD. But we did make it, and it was FUN!! Aurilee couldn't believe how much fun it was. We were all whooping with joy!

While we kept the speed around 3 or 4 mph much of the time, ocne we started down the hill on S Jackson St (a major arterial) we got going much faster!

photo by Aurilee Gamboa

Once we started up Beacon Hill we needed a little push.

Or two. John was just on his commute home from work when he found us heading up Beacon Hill. He pushed us for blocks!

Now i don't mean to sound negative, but if you had 9 people on bicycles, riding 4 or 5 miles per hour together, in a full lane, through rush hour traffic on a sunny Friday afternoon, i'm pretty sure drivers would go batshit crazy.  They would hate us for just existing.  We were certainly wondering what the reaction was going to be, especially because we were SLOW! It took an hour and a half to go 3.7 miles.

In fact we didn't get a single negative reaction. People waved and laughed and some just stared slack jawed in amazement. And hundreds of people took out their cameras and took photos!

Saturday morning was cloudy and cool -- no short sleeve shirts today as we pulled out to ride a block or two to Jefferson Park for the start of the parade. Now this seemed old hat, but i was still amazed at the way The Machine moved.

A couple of Seattle City council members were going to join us in the Parade. Here i am lobbying councilmember Tom Rasmussen for better bicycle transportation.

And we were off, with 2/7 of the city council pedaling. Councilmember Sally Clark is up front.

The parade wound through Beacon Hill neighborhoods, primarily following the route of the planned bike boulevard.

Behind us was a great neighborhood parade of parents and kids on bikes.

Arriving at Lewis Park!

The Machine, with Liz changing shoes.

photo by Aurilee Gamboa

After the speeches and the music we got to ride it BACK up the hill, which was equally fun. I had brought my own pedals and one came out of the crank arm on the way up the hill.

It was great fun!