On my morning commute I stopped to look at this beautiful field. I saw some trash so I picked it up. Further down the road there was some fallen tree limbs, so I pushed them aside so they wouldn’t get run over. Later on I went past a yard with some sprinklers on, so I rode through them to get a shower.

After my fantastic family vacation to Ferry Beach I’ve been thinking about day to day life. It’s been in the 90s, so I’ve been loving being outside, but it seems most people prefer artificial air.

You wake up in the morning in your bed box, take a deep breath of the artificial air coming our of your air conditioner box and feel thankful for the cold temperature in your house box. You get dressed and brave the out of doors for a few moments to get to your car box, where you quickly burn some dino leftovers to get your artificial air. Then you join your car boxes with all the other angry people in their car boxes on the highway box. After sitting in traffic and finally getting to work, you again brave the out of doors, holding your breath so as not to breath in any of the ozone or particulate matter floating around. You hustle from your car box to your office building box, loosen your collar because you are already sweating. Finally in the office you enjoy the sweet smell of artificial air, combination of air conditioning and a mix of perfume, shampoo, body wash and deodorant. You make it through the entrance where you can go sit in your cube box and start staring into your monitor box – then you make your living “thinking outside the box.”

I like biking to work. My tires are round. Ding ding.

“In the past, almost everybody travelled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies. Since most people are right-handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him. Moreover, it reduced the chance of the scabbard (worn on the left) hitting other people.”

- World Standards, users.telenet.be

Math and I got out for a nice ride on the rail trail today, first ride of the year.  The temperature is getting high enough, so its time for us to start our bike commute routine.

The rail trail was mostly clear with only a few packets of snow, and one stretch that had to be walked.  The rail trail was full of clueless pedestrians, either trail newbies or forgetful veterans.  Individuals or groups on the wrong side or taking up the entire width of the trail.  Dogs with long leashes, kids learning to ride without helmets, etc.  My favorite was when I was coming up on a group, so from a fair distance I rung my bell a few times.  That had no effect, as I approached I rang it a few more times.  When I was finally very close, I called out, “coming up behind you.”  Then again, “coming up behind you.”  Then, “behind you, excuse me.”  Then, “HEY, please move over.”  The group turned around, surprised, and kind of moved over in this disorganized surprised way, and one person even said something like, “I thought I heard a bell, but I just ignored it.”

So, have a happy spring everybody, and remember to:

• Wear a helmet when biking or skating.
• Stay to the right except to pass.
• Alert others when passing and approaching.
• Be responsible for your children and pets (keep your kids on the right, pick up your dog’s poo)
• Be considerate to other trail users, trail maintainers (don’t litter) and surrounding communities (keep noise to a minimum).

Happy biking!

Today I set out to break my personal best daily mileage, previously 115 miles. Of course, my previous record was 100 miles on my road bike, followed by 15 miles on my mountain bike towing both my kids.

I biked to Concord before joining the Charles River Wheelmen in their Climb to the Clouds century ride up Mt. Wachusett. I met my buddy Mike from work there, and together we braved muggy temperatures in the mid 80s, overcast skies mixed with occasional sun, downpours and thunderstorms. We went to the top of the mountain, the view was no where as good as the picture here, which is from last October. I was also supposed to meet my friend Sanjay along the route, but he called in sick with a fever. I guess I’ll have to do this again next weekend with him. In any case, after doing the entire century route, I still had to get home, so I ended up logging a grand total of 135 miles. My heart rate monitor says I burned about 8,000 calories, so we’re going out for some pasta tonight.

I didn’t ride at all Saturday, but my commute home from work on Friday resulted in two simultaneous pinch flats. I was riding with Tamara from my office, and we were almost to the parking lot where we meet (where her car was conveniently parked). I thought I’d take a short cut and avoid a traffic light that never changes for bikes. I went off the road into some grass and, blam blam! Two flats. Tamara gave me a ride home, and after inspecting and changing the two tubes (both with snake bites). I drove back and figured out what happened. I followed my tracks in the grass, which went right over a sheared off 2″ square sign post. It was sheared off at ground level, hidden in the grass. I had perfect aim because I hit it with both wheels at about 15mph.

Also in very exciting news, my buddy Ken and his wife Lisa had their first baby on Thursday. He arrived at over 9 pounds, so I’m sure he’ll be ready to ride in a bike trailer early. Congrats Lisa and Ken!

This was the first weekend in a while where we pretty much had no plans. I figured I’d probably find some time to go for a nice long road ride. Get up early, get on the road by 6:30 or 7, stay out for 5 or 6 hours, etc. Yeah right.

I forgot how nice it is to sleep in. And by sleep in, I mean a nice leisurely 8am. Saturday turned into a family ride day, which was fantastic. Did 17.5 miles on the Minuteman trail, starting in Bedford. The trail is long and flat, compared to the Assabet River trail which is a significant down hill to Hudson, and a nice significant uphill back to Marlborough. In any case, we also got a great trial of the Thule tow hitch rack that my Uncle Fred gave us. It is so easy to use and mount compared to my old trunk rack.

Today I decided to finally spend time working on my bike rather than riding it. I had some long overdue maintenance that I just haven’t been able to carve time out for. I did spend about 3 hours working on the bike, but I was still surprised that all the repairs turned out to be fairly easy.

I started by taking off the rims, stripping the tires and tubes off, taking off the cassette, and hitting everything with citrus degreaser. Then I trued the wheels, which was one of the repairs I was scared of. But, turns out to be fairly easy – would probably be harder if they were further out of true to begin with.

After cleaning the wheels spotless, I cleaned the tires and tubes and re-mounted them on the rims. I then installed a new cassette (my favorite 11×28 set), and set them aside. I removed the chain and the rear derailer, and cleaned most of the bike with degreaser. I spent a lot of time cleaning the front derailer and crankset.

I mounted a new rear derailer and attached the cable, then put the wheels back on. I measured and linked up a new chain, then worked on adjusting the new derailer. Put a nice light layer of teflon lube on the new chain, and wiped it clear – and now I vow to take better care of my drivetrain. Everything is crisp and clean, and hopefully I can try to keep it that way! I’ve got 7,600+ miles on this bike (and 700 miles on my MTB in the same timeframe), and am only on my third chain and cassette. Somewhere I heard you should replace your chain every 1,000 miles and cassette every 2,000 – so I think I was very overdue. I now have a chain checker and a chain cleaning machine, so I can maintain it better, and hopefully the bike will continue to shift well (or hopefully better now!).

One thing I’m really happy about is that I bought a cheap bike, and am getting the most out of it. Anytime I need to replace a part on this bike the replacement part is really cheap. Whether I was riding a $5,000 bike or a $450 bike (that’s how much I paid!), I’d still need to replace these parts. Replacing an 8-speed Sora derailer for $30 is a lot less than a 10-speed Ultegra ($80), even the 8 speed chain ($10) is less than a 10 speed ($25). So, next time you see someone riding a $5,000 bike ask them how much their last tuneup was, and how many miles per year they ride. I ride a $450 bike and ride 3,000 miles per year.

Marshall Wolff/Metrowest Daily News staff

I was interviewed this past Friday for a series of articles in the Metrowest Daily News on rising fuel costs. The newspaper also sent a photographer to take some pictures of me getting ready for my bike commute.

My parents came up for Mother’s Day, and to visit my kids school (on Monday). We went out to the playground and we had a great chat while watching the kids play. I mentioned that I was interviewed for the paper, and being that today was Sunday it should probably be in it. Then we went out to Fresh City for dinner. After our meal we stopped by the little coffee house section, where they had the newspapers and took a look. Everyone was shocked when we realized, right there on the front page, was a big color picture of ME. The article continued on an inner page, and there was another picture of ME.

That was very exciting, so we went to Ben and Jerry’s to celebrate.

• Consumers shudder under fuel spike

Thanks go out to Aaron Wasserman for interviewing me and writing the article, Marshall Wolff for taking some great photos (including the one included here) and the Metrowest Daily News for publishing it.

I was able to successfully install my copy of DeLorme Topo USA inside my Windows XP virtual machine in VMWare Fusion on my mac. I was able to export all my map data from my last machine, and imported it no problem. I’ve got all my routes and data from all my bike rides from last year, and am ready to start planning this year’s Middlesex Century route.

I had to enable 3D graphics in order to get the 3D DirectX 9 view to work. VMWare says this is experimental, and that I don’t have the correct features in my graphics card, but it seems to work anyway. I won’t mind if it crashes once in a while. I usually keep the 3D mode off until I need to examine a way around a mountain.

I’m very happy with it running, this is the fastest I’ve seen this program move.

In five days of biking with my home made studded tires, I’ve given myself three flats. The first time was on my third day, on my way to work, about 3/4 mile from my office. I started walking, but was picked up in just a few steps by of all people, our department VP. I fixed that flat in the office, and ordered some Slime tire liners from Nashbar. After the day of work I rode home with no issues.

The next time I rode in, I got another flat. This was a real slow leak, so I managed to get all the way to the office. I hadn’t gotten the tire liners yet, so I decided not to repair, and got a ride home with my good buddy Carl. I took a break from riding while waiting for the parts to arrive. After I got the liners, I had to do some “custom fabrication” by duct taping two liners side by side to get full coverage, and installed them in each tire (so needed 4 tire liners total – my total parts cost has gone from $26 to $46 for two tires).

Today I rode in. A nice toasty 14 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. The roads were mediocre, I don’t think the plow truck drivers actually know how to use the plow. Actually, comparing the roads to the roads I remember in my Buffalo, NY youth, the plow truck drivers in New England really don’t have a clue. The ride in was awesome, had an awesome day. Then, on my way home, in the dark (but a warmer 27 degrees), I got a flat. Carl and Brent were just leaving so I was able to catch them by cell phone, and super-buddy Brent picked me up.

I told myself after all the effort I went through in constructing the tires, putting in the liners, and all the flat repairs, that if I got one more flat I’d be done for the season. I bought a trainer, and figure at the worst I could actually use it with my road bike (which is sad being stored in the freezing shed). After I put the kids to bed I went down to the basement and took a look. The stud heads had not punctured the tire liner, but rather a piece of grit ingrained in the duct tape perfectly positioned over a stud caused the hole. So, I removed the taped grit, inspected the rest of the wheel and liner, added a secondary liner (an extra sliced tube), and re-assembled. Now if I get another flat, again again, this time for real (maybe), I’ll stop for the season, maybe.

Actually, I think my plan will be to bike in the morning but get rides home – at least until I prove that the tires are more flat resistant. The next step would also be to actually buy a studded tire, at least for the rear (where I keep getting the flats) – either that or virtual-commute with my trainer in the basement, laptop and VPN.

Thanks go to Sarah for the “no cycling” picture.

Here are some links I found while looking for an appropriate image for this post:

• Lords of the Logistic
• Bike Hugger

And more links about studded tires:

• Peter White Cycles: Studded Tires
• Bike Tires Direct: Studded Tires (cheapo Innova for $35 each, or better Schwalbe for $50)
• Stud your own bike tires by Byron Kuster at Silent Sports
• Kent’s Bike Blog: Studded Bicycle Tires (lots of good comments)

I’ve already continued bike commuting much farther into the winter season than I ever had before. I overcame darkness with my 6 volt rechargeable 10 watt halogen headlight, illuminite jacket and helmet cover, and an array of blinky lights. I overcame freezing temperatures, wind and rain with my windproof balaclava, lobster gloves, neoprene shoe covers and rain pants. (The Nashbar/Performance Bike Gods own me.) Now I’m ready for anything, including snow and ice.

I made my own home-made studded tires for my mountain bike. I followed the instructions at Icebike.org. I used my super-cheap $7 knobbie mountain bike tires from performance bike, #8 by 1/2″ hex head self-drilling zinc metal screws ($4/100), and cut up some extra tubes ($4 each) to use as tire liners. It took a nice long time and my hands are pretty worn out, but I put 52 studs in my front tire, and 39 in the rear. Total cost for two studded tires: $26 – most of the brand name studded tires (not that many out there) are around $50 to $100 each.

I’ll continue to ride my road bike in most weather as I have been doing. But in the event of snow and ice (should come soon I hope!) I’ll be out on my mountain bike.

Talking about saving the planet. A few days ago I got a piece of paper in my mailbox as did the 3,000 or so other people who work at my office. The paper was promoting the use of compact florescent bulbs to save energy and help the environment. It boggled my mind that a group who was intent on saving the earth would make such extraneous use of paper, its was like robbing Peter to pay Paul. This group had an event a few days later in our cafeteria, where you could bring your signed paper and you would get a free light bulb. Of course, they also had a bajillion more copies available right there. It turned out one of my friends was working the event, so I mentioned I thought their use of paper was completely against the point of saving the planet. She agreed, and mentioned that of the 3,000 or so copies they distributed, only about 10 had been returned – everyone else was just picking up a new copy at the event.

In any case, to help make up for this I made up my mind to do even more. Before I left the office on Friday, I turned off the TV over my cube (which has been on since I started 7 years ago) and turned off my Mac and my MacBuntu (which I hardly even use anyway). I usually leave my computers on so I can remote access them, but I really only need my one Windows desktop. I’m going to look into a way to turn that off too and remotely wake it up if need be. Today my family went to Home Depot and we bought enough compact florescent bulbs to finish off every light in our house, which really didn’t have that much left. I had to remove a dimmer switch to avoid killing some of the new bulbs, but now I can say we do not have any halogen or incandescent lighting in use in our house.

I figured that when summer was over all our activities would cool down, and I could get back to writing blog posts every other day. Right.

October is just full of releases, birthdays, birthday parties, biking and Halloween strolls, Halloween parties, and Halloween night. My children’s birthdays are both in October, two weeks apart. We couldn’t possibly be organized enough to actually have the birthday parties near the birthdays. And, now that the kids are older and have their own friends, we actually have to throw two parties. So, not only do we celebrate each birthday on the birthday, going out for dinner and opening presents, but we have to throw two separate parties.

Then there is Halloween. I remember Halloween in my childhood being a one night event. There was a little preparation ahead of time getting the costume ready and such. Now there are town Halloween events, company events, and parties. This year we went to the Hudson event, but skipped the Marlborough one. We also went to my company’s party. Both of those were jam-packed with kids, waiting waiting waiting in line to play games, get candy, etc. etc. Then of course there is Halloween night. Erica took the kids out, I stayed at home and manned the door.

On the biking front, I am still trying to bike daily to work. I’m getting all my winter-wear ready, and my headlight charged for next week (post-daylight savings). I’ve even taken the smoothy tires off my mountain bike and put, gasp, mountain bike tires on. There is a big difference between my 700×23 road tires and my 26×2.1 mountain bike knobbies.

This past weekend I got a chance to climb Wachusett Mountain again with my friend Sanjay. At the beginning of the season he was riding a mountain bike, and our first ride we couldn’t even get around the reservoir. Since then, he’s found himself a road bike, gotten owned by Nashbar, done the Middlesex Century and now climbed the highest point in Massachusetts east of the Connecticut river. Way to go Sanjay!

This weekend was a whirlwind of activity. It all started last weekend, when Brian and I biked up to Wachusett Mountain for the kids fest. Our families met us up there. When we were done filling up on all the free junk food, I went up to the mountain peak. My wife and kids met me at the top, then we all drove home. Monday through Wednesday I did training rides with various team mates, in preparation for the Rodman Ride on Saturday.

On Saturday, Ken and I carpooled to Foxborough, leaving my house at 5:45 AM, on the bikes and moving at 7. The weather was fantastic and the route was mostly flat. The Staples Soul team finished our 100 miles around 3:30 pm (I also hit 7,000 miles on my odometer during the ride!). We managed to raise over $4,000 for the Mazie Foundation, and our matching shirts attracted a lot of attention and hopefully a lot of awareness. At the end of the ride I had a cheeseburger, hot dog and a beer, then went over to the health club to get cleaned up. We drove from there into Boston, and made it to the Boston Billiard Club for Bill’s bachelor party at 7:30pm. We had some fun trying to play pool, had a beer and lots of coffee. Great food too. We left around 10:30 and I got home by 12:30. Erica managed to convince our friend Gordon to babysit the kids while she went to my other biking buddy Tom’s big 4-0 party. At the end of the night we were both wiped out.

I woke up at 6am to prepare for my niece and nephew to visit. We all went to church, then came back, had lunch, and went to the Marlborough Heritage Festival. After Erica’s sister left with her kids, we got packed up and went over to Sanjay and Divya’s house for playtime, beer, pizza, beer, movie and cake.

I woke up this morning at a leisurely 6:30am. I helped get the kids ready for school, then got back on my bike and made, what I hope will be, my daily winter route to work.