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Hola, Amigos. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve rapped at ya about the bikes, so I figured I’d fire off a quick update.

I’m a little more than one third of the way done with my new years resolution. Today was my 17^th ride to/from work. To celebrate hitting the 1/3^rd mark, I took the northern route home through Sierra Madre. (Map below.) Stan recommended this route the last time I talked to him. He was totally right. The bike lane along Orange Grove and the section of Sierra Madre in Pasadena was awesome, and there were way fewer stops than my normal route. I don’t know that I’ll be taking it in to the office any time soon — the road in to Sierra Madre is, um… steep — but it’s great for coming home.

Some things I’ve learned over the past few weeks:

• I don’t enjoy riding home when it’s over 100, although the middle 90’s are fine
• Cars put out a lot of heat. It’s really uncomfortable being next to them at stop lights
• The Arboretum feels like a giant air conditioner when they’re watering the north end of the property. Which is really nice after sitting next to aforementioned hot cars.
• I need exactly one gear to get to/from the office. So perhaps I’ll get a single speed as a backup bike.
• If you’re putting a new chain on your bike, be sure to read the instructions carefully, least you destroy the chain pin. (Not that I did this. No sir. Not me. Although many, many thanks to Stephanie for taking the bike down to Stan’s and getting the chain fixed!)

Oh, I must remember to give glowing mention to the trunk rack I got a couple of weeks back. It’s a vast improvement over a backpack. No messy straps hanging all over me, no ugly sweaty back when I get to work. If you’re looking for something big enough to carry a change of clothes and a person’s worth of wallets and gadgets and keys, I can’t recommend the Novara “Deluxe” Rack Trunk quite enough.

So anyway, yeah. Yay bike commuting. I’m genuinely enjoying both not being in the car and getting outside more often. I’ve lived in the land of inordinately good weather for almost 14 years now, and I really can’t believe that I haven’t taken any advantage of that until now.

One of my favorite things about our neighborhood is that it’s ideally set up for the Clif Bar 2 Mile Challenge. There’s a grocery, a green grocer and a TJ’s all within two miles of the house. The green grocer (Dogwoods) we’ve ridden to a couple of times for the produce run. Pavilions we walk to whenever we’re only picking up a couple of things. The TJ’s, on the other hand, has always seemed a bit ambitious to us. Our usual run there is food for the week, which we just don’t have the gear to get home on the bike. Today, however, we’re going to a Chardonnay tasting, and that’s definitely within the realm of what we can fit in the rack bag:

Perhaps the best part of biking to the store is that it feels more like a fun outing that it does an errand. It’s nice to know that TJ’s is within easy bike distance for small runs.

By way of brief product review, we use a pair of TransIt grocery bag panniers for the Dogwoods run:

They can hold our produce for the whole week and come with shoulder straps to make shopping with them easy. We even took them on a bike camp out with Fletcher’s scout troop, on which they very capably carried our sleeping bags and tent. Recommended.

My new year’s resolution this year is to ride my bike to work at least 50 times. The first thing that I have learned from this is that I a master of excuse making. Between morning meetings, my employer’s occasional “dress like a banker” days, family scheduling, angst about being drenched with sweat at work and the good old fashioned lazy, I managed to go more than one third of the year without making any progress towards this goal. As of this week, however, I’m on my way.

The ride could not have been more pleasant. It was cool in the morning and not hot in the afternoon. Morning traffic was great. One driver waited at a four way stop and waived me through such that I wouldn’t have to come to a complete halt, which was totally cool of him. None of the cars got all up ons when I took the lane, which I did at every intersection. Exactly one car got within three feet of me. SGV drivers: thanks!

It took me about twice as long to ride — almost exactly an hour each way — as it does to drive on a bad day. (Although not an atypically bad day. Few of my drives in count as “good.”) That said, I got two hours more exercise than I would usually get, so I consider it a big time-saving win.

The home route through Arcadia’s peacock country may or may not be the best way to do things. I’m looking to avoid traveling on Rosemead or Colorado West of Baldwin, and this seemed an easy enough cut through, however I took a couple of wrong turns and ran in to some dead ends. Huntington in the morning was 100% reasonable; I’ll probably give it a go on the way home next time.

I’m planning to ride again next Thursday, and hopefully twice the week after that if all continues to go well.

While I too agree with Critical Mass’ mission, I really can’t get behind its methods. Dave Moulton’s reasoning behind why annoyance doesn’t sell is right on the money.

All this started me to thinking about the Critical Mass movement and what they are doing. Their cause is indeed noble and one I would support; to bring awareness to bicycles and the cyclist’s right to be on the road. It is the method of delivering the message that I question.

Like the windshield flier, it is a poor way to get a message across. The flier under my windshield wiper might also be for a noble cause, a charity event for example, but I will never know because it made me mad and I never even looked at the message.

A demonstration, a civil protest is a form of advertising; selling an ideology rather than a product. Promoting a cause and trying to get people to come around to a different way of thinking. Blocking traffic in the middle of rush hour will get attention in the same way as the flier under a wiper blade; it does so because it makes people mad.

There are many reason to go to the LA County Fair. I present you with one of the best:

No, this photo has not been digitally altered. The food stand really was selling:

• Totally Fried Frog Legs
• Totally Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches
• Deep Fried Veggies
• Totally Friend Smores
• Krispy Kreme Chicken Sandwich
• Deep Fried Avocados
• Deep Fried Coke
• Deep Fried Twinkies

If that’s not majesty, I don’t know what is. And for the curious, Stephanie and I did, in fact, imbibe in all that the fair had to offer. (There was another stand selling — wait for it — Deep Friend Snickers.)

Both Discovery and The Ocho show ads for Accelerade at least nine times an hour. I’m not kidding. Each and every commercial break it’s “don’t fade. Accelerade!” Turns out that Accelerade is giving free cases out to bloggers to get some of the old internets buzz going. Here’s one account of a “month’s supply” of the stuff:

I did try to come up with a scenario where I’d voluntarily choose to drink Accelerade and I think I’ve come up with it. I imagine a super hot day. I’ve just ridden the Issaquah Alps 100K loop four times without taking a drink. I stagger home, open the fridge and see two bottles. One contains Accelerade and one contains goat urine. In that instance, I would slam down the Accelerade.

I’d save the goat urine to wash the taste of Accelerade out of my mouth.

This fits in with the one first-person account I’ve heard. Stephanie had it and wasn’t exactly thrilled by the taste. I guess she’s not alone.

Anyway, I think I’ll stick with water.

Stephanie’s old bike has had an albatross of a chain around its handlebars for years. The key is long lost, and the chain is wrapped around the front of the frame between the handlebars and the fork.

There are two commonly accepted ways of dealing with this problem. First, and most obviously, dissemble the bike. Because the cable is mercifully long, it could fit around the top of the handlebars if the brake and gearshift cables weren’t there. To remove them, you remove the brake assembly from the fork and detach the gear shift cable that goes to the crank. Easy enough, however this method is incorrect.

Method two involves getting out your Sawzall® (Milwaukee, of course) and cutting the cable. Problem solved inside of 30 seconds. Let me tell you that there’s no more gratifying way to solve a problem than the way that pointlessly involves senseless destruction yet saves you time.

The route for the 2008 Tour of California was released a few days back. Pasadena was lucky enough to score the final stage - a road race from Santa Clarita to Pasadena, concluding with a circuit race in Pasadena. Cycling isn’t a really popular sport in the US, but Pasadena is sure to rake in considerable cash when fans in the states come to see one of only two Hors categorie events in the US. (The Tour de Georgia is the other one.)

Of course, Pasadena doesn’t always love the cyclists. From the July 30th City Council Agenda:

(1) PELATON BICYCLISTS - ROSE BOWL

Recommendation of Rose Bowl Operating Company: It is recommended that the City Council approve and direct the City Attorney’s Office to prepare a City ordinance to prohibit bicyclists from riding more than two abreast on any public street in the City other than pursuant to a City permit issued for an event or activity, including the area around the Rose Bowl.

The staff report pretty well comes right out and says “we don’t like those people who ride at the Rose Bowl.” Which seems odd, as those are Pasadena’s hard-core bike racing fans and the city is poised to rake it in from a bike race.

I can understand where the city is coming from, though. From what I’ve heard, the Rose Bowl ride is pretty intense. I’ve heard several horror stories about people just trying to get across the parking lot and almost being run down by speeding cyclists. Is banning it (which banning riding in a peleton may or may not do) the right way to solve the problem, though? These are “50-75 people” getting geeked about a sport. They’re not selling drugs or stealing cars. They’re riding bikes. In our generally obese and out of shape society, you would think that Pasadena would be peeing itself with glee over the public health benefits of a few dozen people getting out and exercising on a regular basis. Especially with a major race coming to town, potentially getting more people in to the sport.

I say deal with the cyclists the same way you deal with skateboarders. They’re a damn nuisance at the mall, but it’s absolutely great that kids are out skating instead of at home playing Halo, so you build them skate parks. Maybe the Rose Bowl riders put some people out, but banning them isn’t a good answer, especially when what they’re doing — getting some exercise, being in the outdoors, being social — is something that more people really should be doing. Figure out a better way for them to do their thing and everybody wins.

As an aside, if I could make one note to cyclists in the SGV: Could you at least try to obey traffic signals and signs? I would say that nothing gives cycling a black eye more than riders breezing through stop signs and lights, making cars that have the right of way slam on their breaks.

As of today, the US Discovery Channel cycling team has riders in first and third — Contador and Leipheimer respectively — in the GC at the Tour de France. They lead the team race by nearly 17 minutes. Contador will hold rights to both the white (by 13:31 over Soler) and yellow (by 1:53 over Evans) jerseys tomorrow morning. It is hard to say that the US is not the dominant force in professional cycling.

Of course, Contador was back by over three minutes from Rasmussen before his team kicked him out for missing an off-season drug test and lying about his summer whereabouts. Oh, and Astana was winning the team race by a couple of minutes before their top rider was busted for doping and the whole team pulled out of the race.

Still, We’re so #1 it’s not even funny.

De-fault! De-fault! De-fault!

USA! USA! USA!

The Rasmussen news really is a shame, as he’s been having a spectacular race. His stage 14 finish with Contador was amazing. I haven’t even seen today’s stage; supposedly he pulls 25 seconds off the other leaders in the last km. I don’t feel so bad about Vinokourov, as he was busted for doping during the race. (Why this is somehow different than skipping out on off-season testing I can not say. Seems like it shouldn’t be.) The whole Astana team quitting, on the other hand, seems odd. I guess the teams are serious about some of their stated “zero tolerance” policies. (Update: Astana was asked to leave by the tour. Oh well.)

One thing I do wonder about: is drug testing technology today really that much better than it was two, three or four years ago? From everything I’ve read, Lance Armstrong was tested before and after every single stage for the last few years he rode in the tour, yet he never had a positive result. If he actually was doping, why was he never discovered while Landis and Vinokourov and so many others were. (The simple explanation, of course, is that he wasn’t doping, which I buy based on what I’ve read about his training and the teams that were put in place around him. But that leaves out all sorts of fun conspiracy theories, so forget that.)

Oddly enough, I still find the Tour compelling even as so many riders get sacked for the EPO or whatever it is they’re mixing in to their coffee in the morning. The races are all against the rest of the field, so even if you kick out the supposedly juiced-up super-riders, you’re still going to have good, competitive races between everybody else. Contador and Soler alone would have made this year’s tour for me. (Just so long as they don’t get kicked out as well!)