Visitor Parking

I rode over to visit someone today at another local company. I pulled to the front of the building and looked for a bike rack. No dice. Some benches, might catch some crap for locking to that. I see the Security guy on this Segway looking thing, ride over and ask him about where the bike rack is. He has no idea - "Maybe in the parking garage on the other side of campus?" This is BS.

I ask him if I can just lock to a pole, he says "I don't care". I see a very good candidate - a BS Car Centric "Visitor Parking" sign. I'll show them!



Unfortunately I was so fixated on my anarchist "Stick it to the Man" bent by locking my frame to the pole that I neglected to think about what the bushes might be doing to my tire.

A very sad day...

We spent the weekend in Tahoe. I had my Seven with me but didn't get a chance to ride as we were doing a lot of painful errands. It was probably a good thing.

We got back around 1 PM and I got on the 1:07 Caltrain. Gotta love Silicon Valley. 15 minutes later I was getting off the Caltrain at Bayshore, there had been an "incident" at San Bruno. Given I had Cubs tickets for tonight work was a wash. Best to just ride home.

As I headed through Noe Valley I decided it was a good day to snap some shots at Bespoke Cycles, the new bike store in Noe. I could also ask the mechanic about a click I had been hearing in my bottom bracket. We quickly determined the problem :(



A very gnarly crack across the top of my bottom bracket. It actually goes around the back side of the seat tube - the mechanic spotted it from the opposite side of that shown in the photo.

Good thing it was found now and not while descending Kingsbury Grade.

RIP my friend.

Caltrain's Bicycle Master Plan Will Leave You Behind

Caltrain's Bicycle Master Plan Will Leave You Behind
If You Don't Speak Up Now!

Due to the overwhelming success of Caltrain's bikes on board program, an increasing number of bicyclists are bumped every day as bike-cars quickly fill to capacity. Unfortunately Caltrain's Draft Bicycle Master Plan does not address present or future bike-car capacity needs. In fact, the plan does not even acknowledge there is a capacity problem. Instead, the plan focuses exclusively on improving bike parking at the ten most popular Caltrain stations. Dont take our word for it, review the plan yourself at: http://www.caltrain.com/pdf/bike_master_plan_key_findings_public_presentation_6-08_v2.pdf

Caltrain is Digging in Its Heels
Caltrain held three meetings in June to collect public comment. You can read bicyclists alarming accounts of these meetings at ...

http://www.sfbike.org/caltrain_bob


We need more voices to add to theirs!

Submit Your Comments by July 3
Submit your comments to Caltrain at bikeplan@caltrain.com and cc bikesonboard@sfbike.org to help the SFBC in its effort to work with Caltrain to draft a real Bicycle Master Plan (not just a Bicycle Parking Plan). Please spread the word among cyclists!

New bike?

I eyed the blue giant commuter style bike as I prepared to detrain at Sunnyvale. Double sided pedals, flat on one side, SPD's on the other, with a WARNING sticker partially worn off inside the cleat position of the SPD. Not only no noticable scratches on the paint but it was pretty shiny. The cogs were all sparkling clean. The waterbottle in the cage had all of it's logo showing fresh, and
no grungy stuff inside. No stickers, etc...

I looked over the rider briefly, new shoes, new helmet. I could not resist and said "New bike?". She turned her head, looked at me, smiled, "Since Thursday".

It was nice to have a conversation on the train about something other than getting bumped... EDIT: I will go home and tell my WIFE about the new bikes I am seeing on the train, and there was a giant commuter bike that I should get HER because it looked pretty cool and would be good for knocking around Healdsburg when we go to OUR house.

Bogus

I had a bogus morning.

Thursday I have stated that I am going to ride both ways to work - 45ish miles each way just to avoid the zoo that Caltrain is sure to be with free rides, publicized way in advance. Unfortunately that might be on the heels of riding all the way both ways today.

I told my wife last night that if we woke up early - and we've been waking up at like 5 AM every day lately as the sun blasts into our bedroom window, that I would join the Google ride down the Peninsula this morning. She said she was interested in riding after work, and I commented that I would be more than willing to ride in the AM and still ride after work with her, and I received general blessing to get up and ride.

I did inded wake up very early, but rolled around until about 6:10 then jumped up, frazzled. I needed to be out the door at 6:20, I threw on my kit and put whatever I needed into my messenger bag. I got to Ritual Roasters early enough to get some banana bread, but I discovered that I had left my wallet. I said hi to Trinh from Google, and dug an ancient emergency clif bar from my bag to get me started while I pondered a day without my train pass or money. I then also realized I forgot to bring the leftovers from GFC (Good Frickin' Chicken) that I had planned to eat for lunch, which would have been very handy on a day without my wallet.

Nobody showed but Trinh. This was a bad sign. Trinh has been showing storming form lately and I have not rounded into shape at all. This was shown early as we went over Cortland and San Bruno, but with those little rollers out of the way I humbly settled into 2nd wheel and hung on for dear life. He sat up a few times so we could chat about various roads I like to ride when I have some actual fitness - Skaggs Springs, Morgan Territory, etc... and I cursed that I was going to have to ride all the way to Google behind this monster - with no other riders I didn't want to abandon Trinh, and besides - I didn't have my train pass! One thing however - I could probably talk him into letting me load up at the Google Cafeteria, which would be very useful given that I was going to be in huge caloric deficit and had no money!

Shortly after Coyote Point, Trinh muttered something about "Going this way" where there is a fork in the path. I thought he had found some new route, I followed him and said "What's the deal?" He said "I'm peeling off in San Mateo". "New office?" I queried. "New Job". Ah. Great. Now I had no money, no train pass, and nobody to draft. Wonderful. I set off to slog on southward.

Let's see, what else. I got lost in Menlo Park trying to find the bike bridge to Palo Alto. I sat up a bit on Central so that I would meet a Caltrain at Mountain View and hope someone would emerge from the train that I could draft off of, no such luck.

On the bright side, I found 6 quarters in my desk at work so I could get a gatorade. I have no idea how I am going to get home, maybe my wife will meet me in Redwood City or somewhere for a ride and we'll (gulp) get in "her" car.

There - got my whining out of the way. If this is a "bad" day, I have a pretty good life. I did have my Ipod water bottle speaker thing going and was doing some good karaoke down the frontage roads in Menlo Park.

ADDENDUM. Opened my email.
"now I have a call scheduled for 5:00 pm....it will be better to just take it than to push it off to tomorrow." So much for a ride home - guess I will just have to ride my bike!

Caltrain Bike Plan meeting.

I am going to the Caltrain bike Plan meeting tonight in Mountain View, 6 PM at 500 Castro St. This is about a 20 minute ride from my office. Caltrain will parade their bike master plan which includes all sorts of wonderful things like bike racks.

Irony - I will be leaving my bike in the office, taking the shuttle to MV Caltrain, walking,
go to the meeting, walk, train, MUNI. There is no way I'm leaving my $$$ Seven
locked up on the street for the duration of the meeting. While this clearly indicates I *can* get to/from work without my bike, it sucks. For the 6 PM meeting, I will get on a shuttle at 5:07 PM. This arrives MTV at 5:27, and I get to sit around. It takes me 15 minutes to ride - less time than the shuttle and no flexibility. Most people would take a little bit longer than 15 minutes, but the flexibility is key to keeping the idle time down.

Had I thought about that this AM I would have checked my bike at Warm Planet. Of course, I would have then skipped SB 220 and 322 and wasted 30 minutes to take the train that meets my company shuttle. These little things are the tipping point between a "reasonable" commute experience and one that completely sucks. My wrist was broken for 3 months in 2005, I was on MUNI and the shuttle for that time - I never got bumped from the train, but it was more miserable than being bumped.


Speaking of bumps - GGT 72X from Santa Rosa to SF bumped 7 passengers - sans velo - at Rohnert Park. There were a few seats open, but not 7. The waitees were gambling that there might be more room on the 72 arriving 5-10 minutes later. Good luck to them. The bus riders in Sonoma County are starting to get as surly as the Caltrain bikers, with no relief in sight.

In Wine Country

My wife and I went to Healdsburg this weekend, as we do most weekends. We recently purchased a house up there that we are trying to rent out as a vacation rental. We really enjoy Healdsburg, it's a gorgeous place with a great mix of good wine, great food, fun events, and most importantly excellent cycling. The cycling drew me to the area, starting with 7 years ago when I did the "Terrible Two" - a very difficult 200 mile event that will be going again this weekend starting from Sebastopol and climbing 18,000 plus very steep feet as it explores Sonoma County. I will be taking a pass on the TT this year, but I'm getting in some good riding up in Sonoma.

This weekend was a lot of work - we have 13 or so fruit trees which are coming into fruit - Nectarines, Pomegranate, Pears, Almonds, and zillions of apples. We even managed to get 10 or so tomatoes to start fruiting in our vegetable garden - I'm trying to learn gardening so that we can have produce coming in most times of the year for our renters to pick. It's hard trying to figure it all out - we have table grapes that are fruiting but not nearly as much as the random grapevines on the fence. The question is - are those any good? To this city boy they might as well be poisonous if I don't know any better. Unlikely - but they might not be a variety that tastes good.

Anyway, after hours in the yard and fixing a broken faucet, we did get out for a ride on Saturday. We did a loop of Eastside and Westside roads (I think this is the east and west sides of the Russian River). Nice roads with low traffic and only a few rolling hills. Jill's a little under the weather so we took it nice and easy. On Sunday I broke free for a loop north of town, through the Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys, and over Chalk Hill Road - the bane of triathletes doing the Vineman Triathlon. This drops me into Windsor where I can return on Los Amigos Road. This picture is of the Dry Creek Valley just off of Lytton Springs Road.


Sonoma County has it all for cyclists. Beautiful winding roads, low traffic for the most part, awesome scenery, Bear Republic Brewery for post ride libations. I skipped the Racer 5 IPA as I headed home where my wife was being a good sport and had made dinner. We managed to integrate some of our garden - Cilantro from the garden for the Spanish rise, and Fresh Rosemary from our Rosemary Bush for the Chicken. Our Lavender is blooming like crazy and I read about someone making "Lavender Chicken" but my wife was cooking - so she made the rules and the Lavender was vetoed.