Found on the sidewalk

Bike theft is rampant in Portland; stemming from a combination of drug addicts, plenty of bikes around, and scrap metal dealers that pay in cash, few if any questions asked.

So it's pretty common to see bikes still locked to racks with the wheels, seatposts or other easy to remove bits missing.

This one, however, seems to be in a league all its own. The headset was even pried out. All that's left is the bottom bracket and the crankarm. I'm surprised the chainrings haven't been removed by now. The frame will get hacksawed next, I predict. You might want to hurry and not let this bounty get away.

Cali trip - part 1: Save the newts!

This past weekend, I made a trip down to the Bay Area to visit my friend, Bill. He's an old buddy dating back to seventh grade. We've always had similar tastes in hobbies over the years; model railroads, slot cars, hockey, etc. We both spent some time after college trying to be bike racers, but that went by the wayside pretty quickly for us both.

So now we try to get together each year or so to do some riding and enjoy an old friendship. This most recent trip was timed to coincide with the prologue of the Tour of California, held at Stanford. The idea was to ride on Saturday, then catch the pros on Sunday

Bill had a great route planned out for our ride, starting from his house in Moraga and winding up through the Berkeley hills overlooking the University of California campus. Before we could leave, we had to attend to, of all things, a loose headset on Bill's bike. For you techno geeks, it was the star nut not seating in the steerer tube that was causing the problem, so we made a quick trip to the bike shop to get it fixed. Then we hit the road.

The ride started with an easy loop through town to get the legs warmed up, then wound along the base of the hills until the road took a sudden turn to the left and lurched skyward.

1.2 lung-searing miles later, we arrived at the top of the climb. Bill said he needed to check the map, but I think he was just catching his breath. Not that I was complaining, mind you.

Continuing along the ridge, we were treated to some great views and some easy rollers. That didn't last for long as we soon reached Grizzly Peak Rd. for some more climbing fun.

As Paul Sherwen would say, we were "digging deep into our suitcases of courage" to get up the climb.

Once we'd finished off that climb, we were done with any significant increases in elevation for the day. We continued along until we reached a road that had been closed to cars for a uniquely California reason - newt mating season. I am not making this up.

The road was a twisting, steep decent and I was too occupied with grabbing handfuls of brake lever and avoiding stroller-pushing soccer moms to see if there were any newts having sex in the road. I don't think I squished any - there were no newt guts on my tires when I got to the bottom of the hill - so that was a relief.

We had the option to extend our ride, but decided that the risk of decimating the newt population of the Bay Area was too great a risk to bear. So we headed for home.

Put this in your musette!

Mens Health magazine has just released their list of the 20 Worst Foods In America. Next time you have the urge to see what a heart attack feels like, head on over to your local craptastic Outback Steakhouse for a steaming heap of Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing.

2,900 calories per serving, 182 g of fat, 240 g of carbs. Mmmmm, I can feel my ventricles locking up just thinking about it.

Now, I suppose if you have a big ride coming up, this would be one way to carbo-load. But your heart would explode on the first climb of the day.

Not to be outdone, equally-crappy chain restaurant Chili's comes in a close second on the list with their signature Awesome Blossom. "Awesome" must be referring to the 2,710 calories per serving, 203 g of fat, 194 g of fat and a jaw-dropping 6,360 g of sodium!

Close Calls

Some wag once said, "There are only two groups of people. Those who stereotype and those who don't."

One of the not-so-great outcomes of the explosive growth in cycling here in Portland has been a increasingly nasty public debate dividing us into two groups of people - cyclists and drivers.

Cyclists, so the stereotype goes, regularly flaunt the traffic laws. They run red lights and stop signs, ride on the wrong side of the road, don't use lights at night, and so on, all the while carrying on with a self-assured smugness that they are better than everyone else because they're not burning fossil fuels.

The Driver stereotype says that all people piloting a car - no, make that a Hummer H2 - are cell-phone yakking, Starbucks swilling, self-absorbed sacks of crap who care nothing about society and even less about those cyclists who are jamming up the streets.

Reality, of course, is that neither of these pigeonholes has very many people in them. As a cyclist, my experience with drivers - at least in Portland proper - is that most of them are very attentive and that the last thing they want to do is to hit a cyclist.

As a driver, I do my best to watch for cyclists. But I do admit to getting a bit pissy when I see cyclists doing some or all of the dumb stuff listed above.

I will fully admit that I've done dumb stuff behind both steering wheel and handlebars. Of course, making a mistake while driving carries a much greater potential for disaster than while riding. But screwing either one up can mean serious injury or death.

So, in an attempt to get me to focus better on how I both ride my bike and drive my car, I've set up a scoreboard of sorts in the space to the right. When I have a close call on my bike that is another driver's fault, that's a point in the "driver" category. But, when I screw up on my bike - rolling a stop sign is my main weakness - I'm gonna own that too. And finally, when I make a mistake in my car - god forbid - that goes on the scoreboard too.

We'll see how this goes for the next couple of months, especially when the weather gets nicer and I start riding to work more. It will be interesting to see which category gets the highest score. Tonight didn't get the other motorists off to a good start; I nearly got whacked by two different pickup truck drivers at the same intersection. They both failed to yield the intersection to me when they had a stop sign.

Signs of Spring

In my world, there are two things that mark the changing of winter to spring.

One of those things is my first bike commute trip of the year. That event occurred for the first time in 2008 today.

Now, I know those of you who brave the elements 365 days of the year to ride your bikes to work are snickering at me right now...or worse. I'll admit it - I'm a weather wuss when it comes to riding to work. I'll ride on the weekends for exercise and fun in practically any kind of weather. Hell, I even rode in a snowfall a few weeks back. So, I think I have "hard man" credentials.

I'm not a person that can handle too many tasks first thing in the morning. (Just ask my wife.) The idea of putting on a bunch of wet weather bike gear and dealing with schlepping a change of clothes to work is far beyond my initial daily tasks consisting of showering, shaving, getting dressed, making a cup of coffee and feeding the cat.

I have primo end-of-trip cycling facilities at my work, complete with indoor secure bike parking, and a fully-equipped locker and shower room. I know all the bike commute tricks - taking several days of clothing to work, etc. But I just can't do it. At 44 years of age, I'm learning that there are a few limits to what I'll do. This is one of them. Besides, I figure that crappy winter weather is what this is for.

So I salute you, year-round bike commuters. You're better persons than I am.

The second sign of spring? That would be this.

UPDATE: 18:00 OK, so the weather gods must have a sense of humor. That, or I karmically screwed myself by waxing eloquent about the onset of spring, given that it rained on me during my commute home tonight. Not hard thankfully, because I didn't have any raingear with me other than my jacket. But hard enough to remind me of what a wuss I am.

Maybe I'll ride the bus for another week or three...

Neutralized Rollout

So, why not have a blog, I said to myself. 98 percent of the world's sentient beings seem to these days, so I may as well join the fun.

I'm mainly going to write about cycling, covering a wide range of topics such as racing and racing bikes. But I'll also venture into the areas of public policy, and how riding a bike could very well save our planet.

Now and then, I'll take the liberty to throw in some occasional posts on baseball and the New York Yankees in particular. And, whatever else enters my mind.

Thanks for reading.