May 7th: The Mystery Ride Virtual Simulator

Flashblog author putting 2+2 together

Welcome to Flashblog. If it's morning, brew yourself a big cup of coffee. If it's evening, pour yourself a generous glass of wine and sit back for this extra length ride report, Flashblog style. Recently I've posted much about bikes, bike shops, trailers, bike parties and not so much about my actual riding. Originally, I got my inspiration for Flashblog writing ride reports, so this evening I return to my roots and attempt to bring you along on this ride, the ride I call the Mystery Ride.

This ride encompasses the elements I crave in a good ride: world class locale (San Francisco), varied terrain and visual transitions, good company, many people to observe along the way, gorgeous countryside scenery, historical artifacts, topographical and elemental challenges, unforseen surprises, and a day given over to the bike.

So let's begin at the beginning, in Alameda at our Team Alameda gathering place, where I found a good number of cyclists preparing to ride, but none of them takers on my ride, except for one.

8am, Kaiser steps. My stalwart companion on this adventure, Bruce Bothwell

some images will enlarge when clicked on

Check out Bruce's Team Alameda Shutterfly page for more original pics

Mystery #1: Why is this ride called the Mystery Ride? Team Alameda had a pizza and beer party back in January, and after everyone was sufficiently lubricated, some clever ride coordinators began taking advantage, er, enlisting us to lead rides. I had signed up for two already, and on this third round, I said, sure put me down. Zoraida, our ride coordinator, asked me "Where are you going Flash?" I replied in a hopsy-malty haze, "it's a mystery". I really didn't know yet.

As the ride weekend approached, I figured I should do something different to live up to the mystery promotion, so I conjured up a Marin Headlands ride, and wrote up a vague description for the TA website. Maybe too vague as it turned out, as Bruce was the only taker. Also had the bad timing of leading on the weekend of the Wine Country Century, a big favorite of the TA usual suspects.

But a Bruce in the hand is worth two or more in the bush, so to speak, and I was very pleased to have him along. Bruce and I have shared many bike adventures over the years, such as the Thanksgiving day Mt. Hamilton climb in '08 and '09, but none so epic as the 2008 Death Ride, where we got caught at the top of Ebbett's pass in a hail/ freezing rain storm. (Flashblog 2008, "Death Ride '08", has an in depth story about that) That was my Into The Valley of Death Ride, and I got to share it with the good Doctor. Plus, should a dental emergency arise, he is the man to have at your side.

Mystery #2: what of the hordes of Girl Scouts that were scheduled to walk across the GG bridge that morning? How would we ever get past 8,000 girls, their mothers, regular tourists, Blazing Saddles rental bikers, and the usual cadre of "Manx Missile" Wannabe road bikers? The emails came in early Sat. morning advising me to beware...Bah! Let the Girl Scouts beware!

We departed Kaiser steps a little after 8am, it was cloudy and breezy, and Bruce's thoughts turned to breakfast, which I think he skipped. He has the metabolism of a teenager, tall and thin as he is. He suggested Chinatown for some pastries. Sounded good to me, so along the Embarcadero we rode. I should add we had a tag along, an Alamedan named Kenny (?) whom I had met at a party for our exchange students last year. Kenny rode with us to the pastry shop, saying we were pretty fast for him. We were as Bruce was hungry and riding on a mission.

Oh, man, did it smell good in there! I scarfed a BBQ pork bun, as did Bruce and he got some other things to take along for lunch. Delicious. We said goodbye to Kenny and rode to Oakland West BART where we transited to SF Embarcadero station and detrained.

An obligatory BART photo. We spend a fair amount of time standing in BART trains, don't we, and BART just makes it so easy to get around. Notice his flash enhanced jersey that glows in light. Brilliant!

We popped out of BART onto Mission St, the Ferry terminal just ahead.

Tried to get both Bruce and Coit tower in the same image, not so easy when you are riding along, but by gosh, I did it. This is SF's Embarcadero district.

Riding along just before the SportsBasement

Fast forward through Fisherman's Wharf, Fort Mason, Aquatic Park, Marina Green and Crissy Field, and here we are near the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. I actually love getting from there to here, so much to see.

Surfers catching mild waves in front of Fort Point

Surfer with Alcatraz Island

Bruce took this lovely picture that captures the whole mood.

Fort Point looking South

Have you ever seen such a lack of tourists on rental bikes? Awesome!

Looking at our goal in the distance, the top of Conzelman Road, elev. 900

Bruce up ahead, Girl Scouts on the East side. We were thrilled to find the west side open, so the whole Girl Scout problem became a non-issue. It was very windy crossing, and chilly, riding around the towers was like entering a howling wind tunnel.

Flash approaches the Sausalito one way tunnel. Mystery #3: would we make it to the other end of the tunnel before the cars on that side came at us? There is dude standing behind the signs at the tunnel entrance, his counterpart is at the other end of the tunnel. I suspect they had something to do with the altered light timing, damn them. Normally, the light is green for 5 minutes in one direction, then it is green for 5 in the other direction. It's one lane in there with two shoulders. Not bad at all on the downhill leg, uphill, that's something else.

Minute 1 inside the tunnel, and the cars are passing us, lots of time left.

Half way through. The cars have all passed us. Ominous sign, as the dudes at the ends of the tunnel seemed to have forgotten about us, and sure enough, about 50 yards before the end of the tunnel, cars started coming at us. This is why I made front and rear lights mandatory on this ride. Long story short, they didn't hit us and we emerged gratefully into the daylight of Bunker Road. I was breathing hard and my heartrate was pretty high. It's all uphill in there, plus on this day, we were fighting a headwind blowing down the tube. Wow, this is a unique experience, not for the weak of constitution.

Bunker Road just out of the tunnel.

We took a left onto McCullough Road, and this is the view looking towards Rodeo Beach

Same location as the last pic, looking up the road. Very few cars, lovely

The intersection of Conzelman and McCullough, with the new roundabout. There was a gale wind up here and we needed to take cover for a rest stop. The lower part of Conzelman is closed for a second round of road reconstruction, therefore the almost total lack of cars. A very special unexpected bonus, this lack of hoards of encapsulated tourists.

Former ammo bunker shields us from the winds. Nice view

Flash in his foxhole

Riding through the first of two tunnels at the top of the hill, this one leads to a third, hidden tunnel, in which we found mysterious and arcane artworks inside pitch black rooms.

Flooded gun pit. There used to be Iowa class battleship cannons up here. Bruce disappeared into the tunnel darkness, an it was only the dim reflection of his bike headlight that led me into a pitch black concrete room filled with cavepaintings. Mystery #4: who painted these and did they work in the dark or by candlelight?

mandala

Bruce and the Gatekeeper.

There were two rooms like this. Very strange and unexpected.

This photo is the opposite of that earlier photo from the bridge looking to this exact spot.

Top of Conzelman's new parking area

These flowers caught Bruce's eye and he got down low, way low, to take this excellent shot with GG bridge in the background.

An observation post high atop the hill. Note the rocks affixed to the sides of the bunker to camouflage the prying eyes from other prying eyes

Inside the observation post, upper level. Lower level was filled with fetid, dark water

The usual and more expected level of artwork in here

Bruce managed to ride up here, but the Volmer-esque super steepness of the access road had me pushing the Miyata, and even that was hard work. After we explored the fortifications, Bruce took off down a dirt path into the trees. He was on his Gunnar cyclocross bike, so this unexpected maneuver had me pondering whether to follow him or not. After some time, I decided what the hell and just as I was about to push off down the hill, here he came back up the hill. He had gone down to get this magnificent photo of the walking path down to the road. Looking at Rodeo beach in the distance. Bonita lighthouse to the far left outcropping, some of you will remember that outing of 2 years ago.

Check out the one way road below, a world class descent normally, but it was so freaking windy it was almost hazardous this day.

After we stowed out camera gear, we dropped into the dizzying descent to the valley. The gusting side winds were blowing me all over the road, so I didn't get to savor the new pavement, I was just trying to stay upright and not crash out on the upper section. It goes fast. We stopped midway down to step out onto the bluff to look south down upon a black sand beach. I didn't know this beach was even there. It can be accessed via trail from a newly built auto turnout. We continued down, and soon we reached our last feature on our tour, the only remaining Nike missile base in the United States. Talk about walking straight into the past and reliving Cold War angst. There is something chilling about this place, and it wasn't the wind.

Grabbing a bite to eat before the missile complex opened. Hard to see the stiff, cold wind in this photo, but it was there.

The gates opened, we were let in, and we set to locking our bikes to a chain link fence. Bruce had an easy to use cable lock, but I had my U lock, and in attempting to put it through the fence, I dropped it on the inside, a part flying off it as well. Doh!!! Then proceeded us trying to gingerly fish it out and get it back out through the fence. I was feeling inept for some reason, but finally we got it back together and I locked my bike to Bruce's. sheesh.

What the Ruskies feared most: a 40 kiloton nuke tipped, solid fueled, Mach 3 anti-aircraft missile, the Nike

Enlarge this pic to see what the buttons say. This was state of the art electronics in the early '60's.

As was this communcations board. We were told that a modern digital watch has more computing power than the entire base had back then. Mystery #5: How did they do it? How did they control these tools of Armeggedon with tubes, and knobs, and wires?

Fire control radar screen, lit by incandescent light bulbs no less.

Our zealous tour guide, who actually worked at a missile base like this one. He took inordinate pleasure telling us how many ways you could get shot for security breaches back then . Or worse, the dogs would rip your throat out when shooting you with bullets might harm the missiles. He told us they used to transport the nuke warheads in disguised milk trucks. Fascinating stuff, this glimpse into a tense and insane past many of us grew up in. The Cold War shaped us in ways hard to describe.

The Nikes are stored in a below ground garage of sorts. I never did figure out where they launched them from, but I assume from the lift once the bird is up at ground level.

This Ford Falcon perfectly sets the time in which all this took place. The concept behind the Nike was that it would fly out over the ocean to intercept the incoming Commie air force. It didn't need a direct hit, only come within a mile or so and detonate it's nuke. The shock wave would blow the wings off any plane within, well, quite a ways. One of these missiles packed 4 times the destruction of Hiroshima. Could you imagine the fallout over the Bay Area had they used one or more of these? Probably better to just get nuked and die quickly than to suffer horrible radiation sickness that would have ensued. Really, just insane to think about it, that we were just a hair trigger away from this being our reality.

Mystery #6: What prevented mankind from destroying the earth? MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction. I guess it worked.

Suddenly, it was time to turn for home. We needed to get Bruce back to Alameda before 3pm, so we took advantage of the stiff tailwind to blow us back to the Sausalito Tunnel. Well, almost, it is rolling uphill, but the wind helped. Even returning at 30mph through the tunnel those damned dudes let the oncoming cars in early, so again, thank goodness we had lights on. Back on the Golden Gate, the sidewinds were even stronger than the morning, and when we slowed to turn around the first tower, the blast of wind nearly blew us off our bikes. We estimate it at 50mph.

Here's a photo of my glasses showing how some liquid, hopefully from me and not a tourist, dispersed across the lens.

We made our way back across the city via Bay St. to the Embarcadero, moving along at a good clip. Once we tromped down three flights of stairs with our bikes, ran to make the Fremont train, which I barely did, I found a seat and just closed my eyes. Man, I was tapped. The wind and chill had taken a lot of energy out of me. It felt so good just to sit there and listen to the train roll along beneath me. We exited Fruitvale at 3pm, I think Bruce was in a little trouble as he was supposed to make an Alameda party by 3:30 in clean condition. I hope he did. Upon arriving home, I finished my lunch sandwich, (seen being eaten in the photo at the missile base). Downed that with a cold beer. Took a hot shower. Fell asleep for two hours. Got up for an evening out which ended at Midnight. Man alive, what a full day!

Postscript: I didn't ride at all Sunday. After an intense week I just needed to veg, but that didn't even happen as all the to do items needed attending to. But even while doing those, I had the great afterglow of a day well spent on the bike. I hope you enjoyed this photo tour of the day and were able to relive it vicariously. If so, I did my job.

Ride On My Friends

Flash

Truckin' Like the Do Da Man

My first full-on leave the car at home full load grocery haul using Flash power. Success! Just as I predicted, its heaaavvy and slow going, especially up the grade by the hospital, oh man, I thought I was going to blow a calf. (note the 20lb container of cat litter, under the Viva towel package is a 30 box of MGD, plus 3 gallons of juice and milk to give you an idea... maybe 100lbs of cargo) Need to work on the bike's gearing to get a granny gear going for that part. But otherwise, very satisfying to fulfill the dream. And really, its so easy to pedal down there and back. This turns an ordinarily mundane trip to the market into a real adventure.

I had 3 unsolicited comments on this trip. The first was a woman in her 30's who offered "that's a gorgeous trailer". I said thanks, but what I really wanted to say, channeling my best Joey Tribiani, was "hey, how YOU doin'?". Second comment was a senior couple walking by as I was taking a photo at Safeway and the gentleman stated " we've been admiring your trailer" and his wife added "oh yes". Thirdly, as I was panting after Hospital Hill, two teen girls on razor scooters standing on the corner said " THAT'S cool!" Motorists seemed totally nonplussed and unaffected by my display. The jury is out on that one, but I'm sure one will eventually say something, and when that time comes I will surely report it here.

I've unwittingly built an irresistible babe magnet. Who knew the ladies, young and old alike, were turned on by...handiness. So a very positive initial outing. I may not be the first cyclist with a trailer, but I may be one of the few with a wood mega-trailer. Today I feel like a trendsetter.

Ride on,

Flash

PS: I've since replaced the rear derailler with a nice Suntour part someone gave me, which has allowed me to utilize the 32 cog in the rear. While this is certainly an improvement, it is still not low enough for Hospital Hill, but there is really nothing more I can do because the bike uses an old style Ashtabula crankset which is nearly impossible to mod for lower gears. But overall I'm happy with the whole package and the last run to the mall was very smooth.

Carrying My Own Weight....The Woodie

Greetings and welcome to Flashblog! In this installment I reveal my long mulled over and at long last constructed trailer build up. Here's a micro video of my (first successful run to the mall and) return to home base.

The maiden voyage captured by Sweeps McNulty

So. I've thought about a bike trailer for a few years now, thinking how environmentally sound it would be to have the means to self propel groceries home from the local mall. Normally, I get into my Taurus or Civic, fire up the motor and drive the half mile. I feel guilty about that. The cars don't even warm up in that short drive so they are spewing the maximum pollutants, getting the worst gas mileage possible, and then I have to suffer through the parking lot wars, weekends have been especially bad and it sometimes takes me longer to find a space than it would have to pedal my bike down there. Just a bad feeling of lock stepping into our dysfunctional car culture. Rather than just buy a trailer, and there are many good ones out there for very reasonable cost, I decided it would be much more interesting to build my own from scratch....design....parts...everything. With as much material used from what I had in storage as possible rather than to purchase new. That is where the creativity really comes into play.

I started my bike hauling experiment a few months ago when I managed to carry $50 and 40lbs worth of groceries on my local errand bike (early '70's AMF Roadmaster) I call "entropy". The main idea with this bike is that I park it outside to promote interesting tones of rust. This is what it looked like without groceries, I seem to have lost that archival image captured after the Safeway run. I had plastic bags strapped and hanging on the front rack, which is loosy-goosy anyway, so the handling was kind of like a greased snake. You know what? I really like this old bike, it squeaks, rattles and clanks its way down the street. It tells me its glad to be alive and not dead beneath that old Victorian where I found it two years ago.

Entropy happens

Top heavy?...oh, just a tad. The next small run to the market, I put rear panniers on my Dutch bike, and rode it back from the mall with $40 worth of groceries....I just barely stuffed everything into the bags and the rear box. That was too hard packing everything in just so, and some items like bread and soft fruits got smashed. I really wanted some elbow room to pack things easily. But the center of gravity was better weight-wise with panniers. I think that really stoked the coals on this project's birth.

One afternoon recently I sketched out the trailer details at cafe 504 in oakland, one large cup of Blue Bottle French roast and two hours was all it took. I guess the time had come as it all flowed out of the pencil onto paper that day. Yes! I had my concept and design, all I had to do was build it...the fun part!

cafe 504

click to enlarge pics

So I present to you the concept brought to reality, my built-from-found-parts Army bike with my built-from-what-I-had in the garage 12 cubic foot trailer... I give you The Woodie. There is room and potential to carry a Taurusload of stuff now.

Will get a light and reflectors and maybe future fenders.

Here's a sample Trader Joe grocery sack for scale comparison. It can carry 12 of these.

The hitch took the most thought and labor. I re-purposed the fork from a Motobeccane Mirage frame I had taking up garage space. I cut the steering tube off, used the fork touring eyelets as mounts to the matching frame eyelets on the Army bike. An aluminum rack also mounts at this point as well. I had to cut, bend, and hammer the fork to get enough tire clearance for the 2.3" balloon tire. The eye bolt on the fork mounts in the front brake stud hole... using what was already there. Note the heavy steel wire diagonal brace through the fork to the top of the rack to support the fork hitch from falling down under the weight of the trailer.

The hitch itself was inspired by a talk I had with the esteemed Prof. Nideker of Team Alameda. He was suggesting some kind of military hitch, he described it, and I came up with this simple hitch that uses a smaller and larger eye bolt, the larger slips over the smaller, and a padlock holds them together and prevents opportunistic theft of the trailer. Two birds with one stone if I have to say so myself. The big advantage of this design is that the bike can lean over in kickstand mode and the trailer stays level. Also, the turning radius is quite good, almost 90 degrees between bike and trailer can be obtained.

The flatbed of the trailer is one sheet of 4'x 3' oak 3/4" inch plywood left over from a kitchen project. The trailer hitch arm is a section of broken lawn chair I re-purposed, it is tubular steel and quite sturdy. Four bolts hold it in place.
The germination of this project was the wheels, which came off my son Max's big scooter from 10 years ago. Nice plastic rims, ball bearings, pneumatic tires. I've wanted to put them to use. The seminal idea was mounting them using drilled pieces of oak to simply hold the ends of the axles. 8 wood screws per wheel secure them to the flatbed, and they are removable for servicing. Once I had this problem solved the rest of the plan just happened...I cut out slots in the plywood for the wheels to protrude, shaped the trailer overall, mounted the wheels, then constructed the removable stakebox.

The fork hitch and rack mount to through the bike's rack eyelets using a single machine bolt on either side with lock washers and nuts. I had to trim the freewheel side very close as it is 5th gear is unavailable as the chain hits the nut. I may reverse the bolt to clear the chain but really, I won't be using high gear on this rig as the operating speed loaded is something like 5 or 6 mph.

Detail of the bracing wire which runs through and around the top post of the bike rack, the wire is swaged with a soft aluminum collar at both ends. I was going to buy some cable, but I had this wire so used it.
A sample load showing how two airport sized suitcases, a Ryobi tool box, a small cooler, and the TJ grocery bag can all co-exist inside the trailer. I mentioned the removable stakebox. I made this from one piece of 12' wide pine board. I made many lengthwise rip cuts of the board to produce 5' long three quarters square posts which were then cut to shape, glued and nailed to form the box. I need to glue 45 degree gussets in the important corners as the box is a little creaky as is and these will stiffen it up. So if I need flatbed hauling capability I can remove the 6 screws securing the box and it lifts off.

So how does it handle? Very nicely unloaded, it is almost not noticed despite its 20 lbs or so. It follows along without wandering. Put groceries in it, and it becomes quite heavy, the ride slows to 5 mph as the trailer tires bulge, but so what. Speed is not even an issue here. Self sufficiency is. Getting back at Big Oil is another issue here. Showing frustrated motorists at the mall fighting for parking spaces that there is another way is also the issue.

It may be a small gesture, but I feel like I have some power not to pay the Oil Cartels their blood money for the gallon of gas a month I will save. I am not polluting the air for my own convenience.

I'm saying I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.

I'm happy to have scratched this item off my to-do list. It's been a long time coming. For me, living a cycling lifestyle is not just about having the lightest, fastest bike, achieving personal bests, group rides or endless training for its own sake. I want to imbed cycling in as many aspects of my life as possible. I hope I can inspire others to take a first step in this direction.

Ride On My Friends

Flash

My Bike Weekend- Surfing Big Wave Bike Culture

I am dedicating this post to Valerie Aldrich who passed away this weekend. When a friend passes we are reminded of how precious life is, what a gift each day is, and not to take our health for granted. Live each day fully and show your love.

When I commenced my activities for this blog Friday evening I set out to immerse myself in The Bike Life outside of my usual box. I think the whole thing exceeded my expectations...

Friday, April 8th: East Bay BIKE PARTY!!!

The Miyata equipped for night riding---safety wise---not party-wise. 10:30 pm

The story begins when Jonathon, a younger guy I work with and an avid bike commuter, told me about Bike Party and how cool it is. I did some search engining and found out these events run once a month in various locations in the east bay. I've never ridden Critical Mass, I've not yet made it to Burning Man. But damn it, I think I could make it to this, which might contain elements of the two. How cool would that be? Pretty damned cool as it turns out.

I was scrambling to get my sh*t together in time to get home from work, gobble some leftovers, race to BART and get to the start on time. Turns out, and I should have figured this...the leave time was very leisurely, and the ride didn't get rolling until about 8:30. (8:00 published start) If I had had more time I would have prepared a water bottle of White Russian, as the theme for this ride was The Big Lebowski. It was heartening to see more and more riders show up as the sun was setting.

Click to enlarge pics

Scene across from the BART entrance about 7:55 pm

Lebowski--The Dude himself--- showed up, ready to "Q" on the roll. "Don't burn your ass!" was everyone's first reaction. His coals wouldn't stay hot for some reason and he was seen at the first rest stop stoking the coals. His meat would never cook at this rate.

Josiah pedaled over from Oaktown with this Rightous sound system...ROCKANDROLL!!!

Last minute departure instructions and a girl in a devil costume

A picture of the roll out which does not do justice to the 500 or so riders assembled

The ride itself was orderly and sedate, there were volunteers at corners to steer people the right way and to manage car traffic. Sure, there were teenage yahoos riding stupidly, as expected, but overall everyone else was very cool. One great thing about going through small neighborhoods was the effect on the surprised residents. Most of them were laughing and waving, some were rattling cow bells or blowing trumpets. Some just stood there, stunned by what they were experiencing. Our section of riders were yelling "BIKE PAR-TAY!!!" to anyone and everyone walking down the street, ringing bells, yelling and making noise. Most motorists were cool, taking in this strange, unexpected parade, but some people just roared their engines as they passed us. Get a life people, I mean, really. This was a celebration of people power, of optimism for humanity, a bunch of strangers getting together to celebrate. Like a Flash mob....?

At the first rest stop, trying to capture the cool bike lighting. Lots of partying goin on. I was sorely missing that White Russian.

A handbuilt custom chopper with neon lighting. The owner had just finished the bike that day.

More colorful bike lights, the photo does not convey the psychedelic effects going on all around

Rest stop #2 somewhere off Ashby in Berkeley at a park. It was already 10pm and the ride was not even half over. I bugged out at this point, as doing the time math in my head would have gotten me home around 1am if I had done the whole thing.

Your reporter fumbling with the camera, which had nearly dead batteries. I got to BART Ashby and had to wait 20 minutes for a train. Waiting for that train was the exact opposite of the elation I had felt riding along in the dark with a herd of my fellow bike lovers. I am eagerly looking forward to the next Bike Party, the location changes and maybe it will be a little closer to home and I'll do the whole Lebowski. About 15 miles I'm guessing including to and from BART. Awesome!

Saturday, April 9th Solo Ride to Old Tunnel Road

An image of Old Tunnel Road I took last year. It hasn't changed.

I didn't get to bed until late Friday night, after midnight by the time I ate something, had a beer, Skyped my relative, checked in on the household, etc. So Sat. morning I was not inclined to get up for a team ride. I got out of the house around 10am and started riding towards Lake Merritt. Just enjoying the scenery, thinking about the Bike Party a few hours earlier and what that all meant. I rode over to Broadway up to Lake Temescal and then up Tunnel. At Sibley a whole flock of Grrrrl cyclists rode in for a stop. Impressive woman power on tap there. I was going to do a Pinehurst loop but then got the idea that Old Tunnel road might be the new PH loop. I was yearning to do this a few weeks ago but the weather was still very wet. Not so on Saturday, so I set out along Grizzly Peak Blvd, and turned down Fishranch, a very fast downhill, I hit 40 without trying, but braked so as to not exceed that towards the bottom. At the Caldecott building I turned right up Old Tunnel.

Soon I came to a park gate. There was an altercation going on in the parking lot... a dude had lost control of his skateboard and it had rolled at high speed downhill and impacted with a Volvo Wagon which was pulling out of the lot. The Volvo driver looked very annoyed, the skateboarder, around college age, came off as pretty doofy. I kept riding. Old Tunnel pitches up very steeply from here on in, I was in my lowest gear believe it or not, and my gears are low (see recently added Low Gear Manifesto page) I was taking it very easy, enjoying the beautiful scenery. I took a few pics with my phone camera but they didn't turn out, thus the image above will have to fill in the blank parts of your imagination.

So I am nearing the top of the paved section, and I see a woman sitting on the edge of the road with a small dog. She is talking to someone on the other side of the road, but I don't see anybody. As I climb closer, a man is scrambling down the slope, camera on tripod in hand, and he nearly runs with momentum right into my path. I look at him and am amazed... its Steven, the IT guy at work! F*ckin' A...small world man! I mean, really, what are the chances of that?

So I dismounted and walked up the dirt trail with them for a ways, then remounted and rode the firetrail across the ridge. Very nice, not muddy at all, hard packed. I felt very pleased until I got to the lava rock section, which is not rideable on a road bike, but I knew it was there. I met a woman and her daughter along this section and walked with them. The mom was amazed that I had ridden up there from Alameda. I told her anyone could do it with a few months of build up. I hope I inspired her to get back on her bike.

Back at Sibley I marveled at how easy it was, but what a truly different kind of riding. Awesome-est Flashcut of all, if I do say so myself. I turned south and Rode Skyline to a place above Montclair and dove down in one of my old favorite Flashcuts to Shepherds Canyon, then Park home. 30 miles and 3K of hills. My neck was hurting, but other than that I was feelin fine. Great day to ride!

April 10, Sunday Streets, San Francisco

Once a month SF closes part of town to motorists and opens it up to everyone else. Today it was Golden Gate Park out to the Great Highway, down to Sloat, both ways. Ocean front riding. This was my first Sunday Streets, and wow.... it is something inspiring to experience. Thousands of people out and about under their own power. Thousands of happy, joyous people. It renews my faith in humanity.

I Google mapped SF to find the best way from BART to the Panhandle. Page street looks great on the map. I rode up Market about 12 blocks and turned right on Page. Here's what it looks like from the bottom. Not so flat after all. Maybe 12% for 6 blocks I estimated. I needed a cup of joe all of a sudden, and there it was...

Notice the Mercury cafe on the right hand corner, I did. A very cool cafe, nice interior, very mellow vibe. 6 out of 8 laptop users there prefer Macbook Pros. The church of Mac convenes here very Sunday methinks...and why not? Isn't the internet our new all knowing God? The coffee was delicious, the barrista asked my preference in beans, sitting in jars along the wall, then ground some French roast and poured me a fresh drip cup. Ahhh. A well spent 15 minutes there. Then began a long climb up Page, which has a dipping saddle, then some more climbing. Every intersection is a 4 way stop. Hardly any cars use it for that reason, it would seem. I give Page a hearty Flashamendation. Once in the park on closed streets, I came upon my first area of interest. People were giving out bike blended smoothies. I stopped for one while this lad pedaled up a batch of berry yogurt. Mmmmmm! At this point I should add that climbing Page St. I caught up with this young man below, a tourist from Argentina, here on his own for a week in the City. We rode along together to this smoothy stop, but then I was distracted by ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN, and lost track of Pablo. I hope he had a splendid day on his Blazing Saddles bike. Pablo, if you read this, please update me on how your day went.

Pablo from Argentina

This is it... the AMAZING VERTICAL TANDEM TREE BIKE!!!! I AM NOT WORTHY TO BE IN ITS PRESENCE!!!!

Oh my God... a tandem with OVER AND UNDER arrangement, retractable outriggers, awesome in-trunk sound system, rechargeable batteries via pedaling, and many more features. I followed this bike, entranced, half way down the Great Highway, where Paul, the designer -builder-mad genius, threw down a beach party style rappin' music fest for about 100 people.

Ported tree trunk for Xtra Bass, note retracted outriggers. The deployed outriggers allow the bike to fully stop and remain upright, a very necessary component of this design.

THE best place to ride alongside for rightous tunes!! I could not get over this bike, it is so AWESOME.

Our group of "tree huggers" riding along like pilot fish on a shark

At the end of the highway I found the Highwatters Surf rock band, these guys ROCK! It was so cool to be at the edge of the ocean listening to a live surf band, I sat in for a full set. Brilliant!

I rode a ways alongside Wheelie Dude, he can keep it up for ages

This woman was having fun, despite her downsized machine. She said she rode what she got. Simple as that. I applaud you madam! A classic Flash hangout cafe if there ever was one, the Java Beach. The Mercury caffeine was still coming on strong so I vowed to visit it another day. At the other end of the highway towards the Cliff House, a minivan was shadowing me as I slowly pedaled along, the driver shouting at someone. Then I hear"HEY FLASH!", so I turn and see Stan "The Man" Layson in the driver's seat, kids in the back. He took them out today as well. He said he recognized "my kit", which was part Team Alameda kit. Again, small F*ckin world man, I mean really. Back in the park, I found a sunny piece of grass shielded from the wind and ate my brown bag lunch, carried all day in a mussette bag along with a can of cold Sapporo. Life is good my friends. I observed all the people, an endless stream going both ways. After lunch I did a few more loops of the park and then turned towards Market St, suddenly I was running out of steam, the heady pedaling had finally caught up with me. This day, with to and from BART riding was another 30 mile day, but easy.

Some people hate riding in the city. I LOVE it. I find it thrilling, like going to Europe in 2o minutes, even better, I can speak the language. Sunday Streets is a HUGE success in its own right, and the trend of giving back the streets to people power is hugely exciting as well. So there it is, my weekend. Writing this I'm tired, sore, sunburned, but energized. The bike culture is gaining strength, our numbers are growing. Creativity is blossoming. And when you get people out of their cars, their humanity returns and blossoms like a thousand beautiful flowers. The secret is, the beautiful thing is, that any bike will do. Just ask that lady on the tyke bike. Just ride what you got, just ride, just... do it. Ride to save the planet. Ride to save ourselves.

Ride on My Friends,

Flash

Manifesto Destiny

My steed resting during the Wheels For Meals charity ride, 10/2009

I just put up a new page over on the right beneath the Flashblog archives, which I call Low Gear Manifesto. Wonder what that could be about? Give it a spin, because its geared real low for easy reading.

Random Cyclists Give Me Hope

The Posey Tube 2 way "bike lane"

Click this link for a short video of shooting the Tube on bike

So today was jury duty day. I overslept by 15 minutes, and upon making my cup of coffee and checking the court website for details, I read that the parking garage fills up by 8am, and then you are on your own, at the mercy of the Oakland parking meter system. Read: expired parking fines.

So at 7:30 I made the bold decision not to drive but to ride my bike there. This required some hustling on my part, a 2 minute shower, skipped breakfast, got dressed , stripped my bike of stealable parts such as computer, saddle bag, and pump, but made sure I had U-lock, helmet, gloves, and most importantly, I had to invoke the transformation of Flash, a very Power Ranger-like event, and set off in street clothes on my Miyata.

I turned west instead of east. East goes to Park St., west to Webster St. Webster St. means one thing- The Tube. But I realized in a Flash that cycling the tube would save me valuable time---I had to be checked in at 8:30am. So west on Santa Clara I rode, and I found myself flying along. Not sure if it was just the freshly imbibed coffee, or that plus adrenaline, but I was riding like a bike messenger, taking on Constitution Way in the rush hour traffic. The sun was out, the air was crisp, I felt in my element. Soon I approached the gaping jaws of the Tube. Traffic was backed up to a crawl so I was actually making better time then the drivers.

It's a giddy feeling surmounting the sidewalk and coasting down into the bowels of the beast. Not long after entering this traffic intestine, I saw my first encounter up ahead.

Encounter #1 was a scruffy looking dude riding a crappy mountain bike. As we approached each other head on, I was unsure if he was going to stop. His bars looked too wide to pass me without stopping. I pulled over and stopped, almost leaning against the black sooty tiles that comprise the tube walls. The dude stopped, got off his bike, and walked around me.

"Hey, thanks man, I appreciate that" said I

The dude looked at me a moment, then said,

"I've always thought for bikes that the other tube should be one way towards Alameda and this tube should be one way towards Oakland"

I was struck by the irrefutable logic of his thinking. So unexpected at that moment. I pressed on, and soon saw my 2nd encounter approaching me.

Encounter #2 was a petite woman on a hybrid bike. Again, I was not sure if she was going to stop, so I stopped again almost against the wall. She stopped alongside me.

"Thanks so much for stopping! There's this other guy that doesn't stop at all and yesterday he actually clipped my pedal while I was near the railing and scared the hell out of me, so thanks for stopping"

At that moment I felt a kinship to her. She was pretty, but without a helmet. I could almost visualize her being knocked over the railing into the traffic. I wanted to hug her like a daughter.

"I'd feel much better for you if you had a helmet" I said.

"I had one but it was stolen. I'm saving for a good one." I nodded and pressed on. So this young woman is a Tube Regular. I respected her immensely at that moment.

Encounter #3 was a repeat of 1 and 2, an older Asian man on a mountain bike. I stopped once again, he dismounted and lifted his front wheel up in the air to pass me. Nice display so I thanked him and he smiled.

The second half of the tube was encounter free, and I chugged my way up the grade breathing nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, thinking at least this is not northern Japan. I made it to the courthouse by 8:25, and have to admit I felt superior over the other 89 jurors who drove there.

But what impressed me this day was the kindness and cycling humanity I encountered inside the tube. The last place I would have expected it. And that my friends, is what makes it so sweet. Comrades in cycling, unknown to each other, but committed to making each other's passage safe and above that, civilized. It made me feel proud to have met them, however briefly. I have the utmost respect for those who have to ride this noir gauntlet everyday.

Ride On my friends

Flash

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

So it's raining still. There was a nice sunny window this morning which inspired me to formulate an Oakland cafe plan, one that I would ride to...504 over on Wesley St. A bit risky yes, but worth it. So I got my locks together, put my laptop in a plastic bag inside my backpack, put on a weatherproof jacket (over my street clothes) and wheeled the Miyata out the door. Of course it started showering at that exact moment. Of course. I dashed under the roof of my backyard deck and sat there a while watching the half hearted rain, imagining myself getting wetter and wetter riding over to Lake Merritt, so I bagged the whole idea.

I like the minimalism of 504. My previous visit on a Wednesday, on my way to work, it was pouring buckets and a torrent of raging curbwater was coming up onto the sidewalk in front of the cafe. There was a city bike parked against the window, seemingly cowering from the flood. Inside 504 are a few round tables, and the cafe prep area. It's a small hole in the wall kind of place, but this is precisely what appeals to me. The barrista that day was a young woman, hip, attractive, and distant. The music playing was something really cool I've never heard before... part female angst vocals, part hypno-electronic trance vibe. Perfect. They do "pours" at 504. I'm discovering that "pours" are the new cool thing in coffee. Yeah, well...

I've been doing pours for 30 years, but didn't know it...I've always called the method "filter cone". Simple, makes excellent one cup brews. I didn't know how ahead of the curve I am on this. For once I can celebrate my prescience in this matter. The big difference in my pours and coffee house pours is the 1000% markup in price, I mean, they charge more for this service than regular vat brewed java. Hand made, right? Ah, I know I am really paying for the ambiance and free internet anyway. 3 bucks for inspiration to write a blog is good dineros invested in my opinion.

So I mentioned I almost took a ride today. Man, it's been raining a lot lately, more than last year if my memory serves me. There is always that nagging worry of falling out of shape and becoming a fat, gelatinous blob. Don't worry about it. Consider the spacestation astronauts, who after 6 months of weightlessness, return to Earth as weak as someone who has been in a coma, for crying out loud. It comes back fast.

Besides, it's a good thing to sometimes get out of the same old routine, to resist your usual habits, do something different. Yesterday I helped my old folks---fixed their shower head, their broken washer faucet, their bedroom telephone that wouldn't work, their "Helping Ears" TV headphones that were not plugged in and had dead batteries. And just spent some time visiting. That almost never happens on Saturdays, I'm always off riding. There is that nagging little voice that says perhaps I am too self involved in my own interests---LALALALALALALALA---there, it's gone now. Back to blogging.

The only aspect of cycling that stirs any interest in me right now is SRAM's Apex groupo. Apex is in a nutshell a compact drivetrain with a mountain bike rear cassette, meant for road use. Not that they had a lightening strike of inspiration. I've modded my bikes this way before, and many of you on the team, MacGyver for instance, have a similar, even lower geared Shimano setup. SRAM's tagline on their ads for Apex is: "Kills triples dead". Hah. That's not too original, in my mind that's a direct steal of Black Flag's insecticide ads which boldly proclaimed "KILLS ROACHES DEAD". Kills triples dead. I don't think so.

Their claim to superiority over triples is the lighter weight of their system with essentially the same low gear ratio, or better. Granted. However they totally avoid the fact that you can do the same thing as Apex with a triple, and more. As I have on my Lemond. I have much lower gearing than Apex as I have a 28 on the front whereas Apex uses a 34 compact ring. But my setup is costly in terms of weight, if you want to argue that a half pound makes all the difference on a bike. I think light weigh only goes so far. Why am I able to ride up hills faster than people with bikes that are 5-10 lbs lighter than mine? Lower gears and higher power to weight ratio.

Sure, a super light bike feels great, but when the road starts going up, your body weight plays an ever greater factor in your climbing speed. That's why some of our team's small thin women can outclimb the big muscular guys. Overall, the total weight package is lower. It's as simple as that, and that is why I think spending thousands upon thousands for slightly lighter bike gains is something that I'm not going to be doing soon.

So, back to the cafe. I'm sitting in Spritzer's here on the Island. I drove here after doing some errands. Got a nice cappuccino, which is now lukewarm. But the inspiration has been provided. Good middle road rock music playing, internet is fast and easy to connect to. Couch is super comfy.

Lastly, I got a text message from Thailand last night From Z_rider. You will recall a group of Team Alameda cyclists are on a tour over there. It read like an old fashioned telegram and simply said something like "had a great time, thinking about all you could blog about here". Got a similar short email from McNulty last night as well.

Nice. There they are on the other side of the world, just having had an adventure of a lifetime, and they are thinking of me. Of how I would have written it up. A monumental epic ride report done in Flashblog style. That means a lot to me. Thanks guys.

Ride On My Friends

Flash