This weather is insane in Texas, Wreck-Free Sunday

My last 2 trips I had to pack 2 different outfits for the outbound and returning legs because of wild temperature swings from outbound to inbound legs of the trip. Last night I went to the RPG group, and leaving Casa del Poeta I was riding in mid-60′s F (18°C). On the return leg I was riding in 44°F (7°C) temperatures, slightly more than 20°F (11°C) colder. That requires completely different types of clothing for a 6 mile bike ride (each way). Riding outbound I was wearing cotton shorts and a short-sleeve jersey (I needed to have pockets, so I wore the cotton shorts) but on the way back I wore heavy tights under the shorts and a heavy sweatshirt over the jersey and was still slightly chilled.

This morning as I was laying out my clothes for the day the temperature was 56, but the hourly forecast called for a temperature of 42 for the time I was going to be riding. By the time I was finished with my shower the outside temperature had jumped to 62 and by the time I was out the door it had gotten to 65, and was 70°F on my return leg from morning services. I was wearing tights under cotton shorts (needed pockets again) and a lightweight long-sleeve jersey and was way over-dressed for the conditions even on the way out, definitely for the return leg of the trip. This is much more like March weather than what we normally get this time of year in TX. I have no idea what to wear for the ride to evening services, maybe mukluks and a parka?

For those who may be wondering, this was our celebration of Imbolc, where Winter fights a retreating battle against Spring. We blessed our tools both magical and mundane for the upcoming season. It was interesting looking at the things that were on the altar to be blessed, ranging from paper notebooks to notebook computers, sticks with twine wrappings to swords, kitchen tools of all descriptions, and my helmet standing in for all of my bike stuff. For things that could not be removed to bring into the building there were paper notes naming the items that were blessed in absentia

The DIY bike light project is still going on as I tested the solar cells to determine which side was “+” and which terminal was “-” as I want to recharge the batteries, not quick-discharge them. Also while testing for positive and negative I found the solar units were under-rated for voltage, as I was getting readings of 4.77V as I was trying to find which terminal was which. I wasn’t testing the current out but the rating was 90ma at 4.5V and 200ma short-circuit. As I put in an earlier post, these units were made to charge solar yard lights with 3S NiMH cells and 3 will put out C/11 into my NiMH AA pack. This is a very safe charging rate and will top the cells nicely.

One of the things I have to do is make the bracketry work for the handlebars I’m using on this project with the large horizontal brace between the actual bars I hang on to. The light has to clear the bars when they are laid back at a comfortable angle as it will be almost 8″ wide at its widest point (lots of LEDs). Placing the solar power behind the lighting units will move the wide part of the light about 2½” forward from the bars so that the light has clearance to swing down and shine on the road rather than the trees and clouds overhead. I also have to be careful about running the wires where they won’t get damaged in handling and normal use, and are esthetically pleasing (mostly invisible). I’m slightly torn about some of the esthetics of this build. I could frame the lights with angle and weld the angle to the backplate and extend the part where I mount the solar power units forward to act as a visor to help keep stray light from getting in oncoming drivers’ eyes, or I could just mount the lighting units to the backplate and the solar units behind the backplate, leaving the lighting units completely exposed and also allowing that stray light to light up street signs (and get in oncoming drivers’ eyes). So 6 of one and half a dozen of another. The good part about framing the backplate with angle is that it automatically jigs the top panel for the solar units at right angles to the backplate. One thing I know I’m doing is running angle from the backplate to the mounts to the handlebars to reinforce the top panel against bending, so I might as well go ahead and frame out the backpanel while I’m doing it. Another thing I’m doing is using an Altoids tin as a battery box as they are (mostly) weatherproof, especially if they are protected against direct spray against the hinge line and since I’m putting the box behind the backplate it will be protected against direct spray. It won’t withstand direct immersion, but for riding around on a bicycle it will be fine, especially mounted under the solar top panel and behind the backplate.

So, the bike light project is moving forward, the project the bike light is going to be attached to is moving forward, and I survived another cross-quarter celebration with hair still on my head. By the next solar sabbat I will be shaved of head and my fuzzy locks will be lining local birds’ nests and keeping the chicks comfy, and maybe I’ll be riding the new bike and debugging the design.

PSA, Opus

Trying to decide what I want to be when I “grow up”, Wreck-Free Sunday

I desperately need to find some kind of steady income that I can get legally. I think I have posted that my last job interview was back in 2006, and that I gave up applying for jobs back in 2009. I figured that three years of no interviews meant I was pretty much never going to get a job again. I haven’t driven since 1995, so getting a job driving trucks looks to be out of the question. That kind knocks me out of about 2/3 of the jobs openings I see posted either online or in the local papers. Jobs doing what I do here, writing and researching on the Internet, are gaspingly rare, and ones that actually pay a steady income are rarer still.

I lack the social skills to be a bike mechanic, or pretty much any job that would require interacting with actual people on a regular basis. I like people, most of the time, I just don’t like to be around them except in limited circumstances that I can control and be able to leave when I need to. It’s real easy for me to get over-stimulated around people and shut down as in “Don’t talk to me” shut down. In a job situation that is generally considered too not be good for business. Part of that is my personality from before the wreck, and part is what happened after the wreck, and just a tiny bit is because of the actual wreck itself. I have a touch of PTSD, which is what I consider to be what happened after the wreck with GPD totally ignoring the case, and this is not made any better by riding my bicycle in traffic with crazy people. I don’t know many bike commuters personally, but every one has this to some extent, even the ones that haven’t been hit yet. And for many years in Dallas County it wasn’t a matter of “if” but “when” you would get hit as a bicycle commuter even if you followed the laws like a pharisee, so most of the bicycle for transportation people I know have been injured by a motor vehicle while riding their bikes.

So, again I ask my readers what I can do to make a steady income, knowing my limitations. I also have to be working at a job that makes to world a better place, or at a bare minimum does not make the world any worse than it already is (so no Wal-Mart greeter jobs, or anything like that). I don’t know that I could work for myself as I seem to lack the ability to motivate myself to “do things” outside of posting this blog 7 times a week. And that is because I have to write, I get really bad if I don’t get to write something of meaning to me. Ideally if I could make money writing, that would be fantastic. Realistically that ain’t going to happen. There are just too many people that are writing for free for that to ever happen. Just look at the people that are doing web comics, the ratio of people drawing comics to people making a living at drawing comics. The ratio of people doing blogs, to the people making a living doing blogs, is likewise. You have your Huffington’s and your Drudge’s making 6 figures a year at top, and you got a bunch of people like me with niche blogs down at the bottom. In the middle you get a few making enough to not have to work a regular job but they’re not even in the middle third of the middle class. I wouldn’t mind making a living in the bottom third of the middle class doing this, but will it happen? Not unless I start writing about something other than bicycles.

So any suggestions about what I could do to make a steady income? Leave a comment.

PSA, Opus

Infrastructure ideas just get dumped in my lap, Wreck-Free Sunday

I sometimes get amazing Infrastructure! ideas just dumped in my lap from the most unlikely sources. Seriously, this Instructible came in the morning e-mail dump and I’m just blown away with how easy it would be to execute, how it manages to do all the things that a system of this type is supposed to do, and how it does it better than anything else out there.

This project takes the concept of the HAWK crosswalk warning system ans turns it upside down and sideways. so that not only are drivers alerted that pedestrians want to cross, they are shown where the crosswalk is on the road, and where the pedestrians are in the road. How to Make a ‘Glowing Crosswalk’ Urban Prototype The prototype system was created to be a portable demonstration system, but the principles and much of the hardware would be the same for the permanently installed system. I particularly like the battery-backup so that the crossing works even if grid power is down, meaning even in a power failure pedestrians can safely cross the street (assuming drivers aren’t taking advantage of the chaos to be assholes).

I see this as being ideal for mid-block crossings that would be hard to notice otherwise, as drivers have become conditioned to only seeing pedestrian crossings at intersections. As I see it it would be far more useful than the HAWK system that sits at the side of the street and does not light the middle of the street. It has the potential to be far less expensive to install than the HAWK system, which runs between $77K and $125K depending on the complexity of the installation.

My riding has been ahead of projections so far this month, I was planning on a 2K mile year this year, and my “trend” line at BikeJournal.com is way ahead of that. Part of that is because I generally have a lot of places to ride to at the beginning of the year as I have to make many trips to banks to deposit checks that came over the holidays, and meetings for various church committees that form over the holidays to do things in the coming year, plus just the usual banging around I do for keeping the household running and doing what I do. Then I have less to do during February and March that I can do on my bike and I fall behind a bit, then things get real busy during the late Spring and Summer as I run all over town doing things and going places. Then I usually get most of my miles in for the year. Last year was a bit different because of me Dad getting sick and then passing, with several weeks away from home and a bicycle living in a town that had no use for either bicycles or walking. That is not likely to happen this year as I’m all out of parents. That last sentence was a lot more jarring than I intended, but I have tried several times to come up with some other way to say it and all of them are even more jarring.

I’m still trying to get the pictures to show in the build story for the winter face mask I made from the Halloween mask, but nothing seems to be working. I’ll take another stab at it today, maybe it will work this time…

PSA, Opus

Wishes for the New Year, Wreck-Free Sunday

I just finished a service on making your wishes come true in the upcoming year, by being prepared to make random chance roll your way. We watched a video of Justin Bieber, while I explained how he was discovered on YouTube back in 2008, and I explained the random chance involved and the preparedness involved in making The Beebe a household name. The random bit was the guy clicked on Justin’s video out of thousands of other talented kids making videos and posting them to YouTube. The prepared bit is that there were hundreds of thousands more that didn’t post to YouTube and never had the chance to be “discovered”. As I pointed out during the message in order to win the lottery you must first buy a ticket, almost never in life does something get handed to you out of the blue except your life. You got that free everything else you have to do something for it.

Then we listened to a story about the Buddha and anger, followed by a meditation on hyper-awareness, where everyone got to live in my world for a few minutes. I have PTSD but I can’t drop the hyper-awareness while I’m on the roads because there are too many idiots out there driving like I’m as well-armored as they are, only I’m not. This is one of the reasons why I don’t suggest road riding to help people with PTSD. The physical activity is good for them, the constant need to be aware of everything around you out to about a quarter of a mile not so much.

Also we did a three part sharing ceremony, using stones, coins, and black-eyed peas. The stone was placed in a bowl of water and your gratitude for the year was expressed, and the congregation wished success to the speaker, then the coin was placed in the bowl while expressing a wish for the new year, and again the congregation wishing success, followed by stirring the pot of black-eyed peas and expressing a wish for the congregation for the upcoming year, with the congregation wishing success a third time.

After that we adjourned to the kitchen for more peas (with seasoned ham hock) and 3 different kinds of pie. [Billy voice]“I like pie!” [/Billy voice] (Billy voice courtesy of “The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy” ).

And my wishes for you for the New Year? Live! Dead people read no blogs.

PSA, Opus

Running way late with a busy evening ahead, and the Feed

My part-time gig as a crying pillow for a widow woman went late because she stayed up late crying on my shoulder, and then her meds kept her asleep until 1300. I was awake at 0900 but she couldn’t wake up until much later. The bad thing about that is if she doesn’t wait to let herself wake up when the meds wear off then she’s impaired for several hours after she would have been fine otherwise, and I would have been even later getting home.

Up first is a link via BikingInLA to testimony from the trial of that guy that went on a drunken rampage in a Hummer a couple of years ago running smaller cars off the roads and targeting cyclists in the bike lanes. Ex-Ventura police officer describes trying to save bicyclist At the time I was wondering if the driver had reverted to the “unwritten road rules” of his home country. Some of what I have read about this trial makes me think that this might have happened due to his emotional state prior to getting drunk, and then the massive amounts of alcohol he drank prior to the rampage. This is another driver that I would like to see watch his vehicle get recycled from behind the steering wheel. Infrastructure might have saved the cyclist from this madman but would not have helped any of the other victims. This report earns the “Waste of Human Skin” tag for the post today.

Also from CA is a deliberate assault of a cyclist on Halloween night. Preteen struck by car door on Halloween in Santa Cruz There is no way for a cyclist to avoid something like this, and no way for infrastructure to prevent it either. I hope they keep looking for this pair and charge them with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Still in CA a funeral for a dead cyclist. Funeral Services Set for Teen Cyclist Still plugging the SWSS angle. >sigh<

Just up the Left Coast from all that carnage a little girl is hit-and-run riding to school. Car strikes, injures Kent girl riding bike to middle school | Update From what I can determine the cyclist does not have life-threatening injuries, just really bad ones. Remember every driveway is an intersection and use intersection protocols to avoid a wreck like this one and get the infrastructure right to prevent another one. And lock up all hit-and-run drivers as flight risks until their trials.

From the Windy City come links to a cyclist dying in a right-hook wreck. Cyclist hit by truck, dies and Bicyclist Struck, Killed By Truck In Noble Square also Fatality Tracker: Driver turns truck right in front of cyclist, killing him Shouldn’t the driver have gotten a bit more in the way of consequences for the wreck that a stinking ticket? Anyway, intersection wreck, use the intersection protocols to avoid and get the infrastructure right to prevent. And make no bones about it this was an entirely preventable wreck.

More on the wreck that killed a cyclist in OH. Driver charged in cyclist death Serious charges for a serious crime.

A MA cyclist is hit by a drugged out driver with 4 kids in the car. Cyclist dead in Calverton crash; cops: driver that hit him was on drugs, had four kids in car No way for a cyclist to avoid a wreck like this where the driver crosses the entire highway to hit you head on when you’re riding on the shoulder. Infrastructure won’t help much either unless there is something like a Jersey barrier to keep idiots away from bicycles and vice versa.

Another MA cyclist is hit in an intersection. Fall River Police: Bicyclist injured after colliding with car The cyclist was riding ninja not that that would have made a difference in this wreck, as the bike hit the car going through the intersection after coming to a stop. Intersection protocols to avoid, and since this would be shared infrastructure under the Dutch plan, the infrastructure would not need (much) adjustment to prevent.

Another one of those BikingInLA links has an RAF pilot explaining how evolution has ill-prepared us for driving to the detriment of mainly motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. What an RAF pilot can teach us about being safe on the road Basically our eyes were designed to work from a stationary platform up to a speed of about 20-25 MPH. Any faster and we are literally flying blind to a greater and greater degree as speeds increase. What helps prevent massive carnage by motor vehicles is we have changed the roads to accommodate these limitations and armored up our vehicles to mitigate the failures when they happen. Neither of those things work if you’re not riding inside a motor vehicle made in this century.

One of those links that I really needed to get up sooner except I didn’t see it until now. They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To: a 1946 Griffon & Howle Rando-Broom Actually brooms are decidedly Old School for witches these days, just ask Gigi (if you can chase her down).

Infrastructure! news from the Great White North, as they seek to discover how to stop killing cyclists and pedestrians with motor vehicles. Bronson speed limits could be cut to promote cyclists’ safety Here’s a hint: Make drivers responsible for controlling their vehicles around vulnerable users like cyclists and pedestrians.

Infrastructure for South Africa. Law may change to assist cyclists One point five meters is a touch under five feet, for the metric impaired among my readers.

I don’t know exactly how to classify this one, because this computer doesn’t have sound to go with the video playback yet. Austin Cycling Community Raises Awareness and Money for Injured Cyclist I’m going to go with a mixture of LifeStyle and advocacy from what I can see.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today/tonight.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Can I get an Amen? Wreck-Free Sunday

Gigi may no longer be at my house but she seems to have found Internet access somewhere. I found a comment that was credited to her by FB that if it wasn’t legal to ride on sidewalks, and drivers didn’t want to share the roads, that because motor vehicles killed about 100 people per day and the worst year ever for bicycle they killed 10 people that year, perhaps it would be best to ban motor vehicles from the roads. Can I get an Amen to that?

What I was actually thinking about that would be a ban on private motor vehicles only, combined with making all wrecks potential “assault with a deadly weapon” when “vulnerable users” are involved. The logic behind this thinking is that people are mostly looking out for their own survival but also not expecting people to be actively trying to kill them without overt provocation. Add to that that most cyclists and pedestrians don’t consider riding a bicycle on the road “overt provocation” like some drivers do.

Excuse me I had a “Squirrel!” moment there. Ban private motor vehicles and make hitting the people not driving trucks (i.e. everybody else) an automatic assault with a deadly weapon until proved otherwise. The reason for the ban is a majority of the deaths of vulnerable users is caused by cars, that the majority of the oil used is used by cars, and the majority of congestion is caused by cars. Get rid of cars and vast numbers of problems will just vanish. Now I know that this will create more problems, but those are easily solved by expanding public transit and converting those enormous fields of pavement used to store cars between trips to housing (each parking place could house one person when converted to housing). The main reason why people can’t walk or ride a bike is distance between destinations, and the main reason for the distance between destinations is those enormous fields of pavement used to store cars between trips. Convert those to housing and distance becomes a non-issue as the destinations are cheek-by-jowl with the origins.

Keep motorized transportation for goods, and building all that close-in housing becomes a job-creator to put a temporary boost to the economy while we transition to a car-free economy. Since most of the cars are built outside of the US dumping cars will not have that great an adverse effect on the US economy, but getting rid of them creates opportunities for other growth. For one thing getting rid of cars means people are going to need to eat more good carbohydrates. That means that there will be more need for things like wheat and rice and potatoes that are grown with low glycemic index but high carb loads for long-lasting energy for people with active lifestyles. That would be almost everybody in the car-banned world, as walking and riding a bike would cover the majority of journeys. Plus bulldozing the former suburbs back into farm land would provide a place to grow those crops where they could be easily transported to where the people are. Or at least they could grow the veggies those people would need as fresh produce that could be transported by cargo bikes and trailers to where the people are.

Those veggies could be made more affordable by keeping the tax on oil high for all motor vehicle fuels to reduce usage so that locally produced products could compete with products that had to be transported from par away places. Those taxes could be spent on rebuilding the rail system and converting roads to shared use between large trucks and people walking and riding bicycles. There would be no reason to have 2 wide lanes and a lane and a half of shoulder in each direction for the current Interstate system as an example. You could have one side bi-directional for trucks and the other side bi-directional for foot and bike travel, with the wide shoulders and 2 lanes converted to 2 lanes and a passing lane on the truck side and converted to wide bike lanes and wide pedestrian lanes on the human powered side. The frequent truck stops could be converted to hostels and inns for HP travel at the former exits.

I have ridden a bike on an empty Interstate highway before it was open to motor vehicles and found the experience quite nice. Interstates are made for heavy truck travel and as a result have limited grades and the most direct possible routing, which would also be great for people walking or riding a bicycle. Since rails can’t handle all the new freight traffic needed to support living in the car-free economy we still need trucks and buses to get goods and people from place to place, too.

Not everyone will have the time to walk or ride a bike to go from city to city, most will but a lot won’t. Tourism will become a mixture of taking care of people for whom the journey is the reason to travel and those who just want to get to the destination and have fun. The latter will be served by planes and bus travel (and passenger rail if that gets expanded), while the former will be served by the converted Interstate system and back roads that would become bike-friendly because of reduced high-speed car traffic. Tourism won’t disappear, but it will be changed drastically. For instance I see “foodie tourism” as a new niche, people going to out of the way locations where the planes and rails don’t go to eat the local cookery that isn’t franchised fast food. back in the pre-car tourism era this was a major reason for travel, especially outside your state or country.

In the post-car world, things won’t be perfect. But they won’t be too bad for most people.

PSA, Opus

Product review: Forte Metro tire

A little over a year ago I bought a set of Forte Metro tires in 26 X 1.5 (559*37). Since then I have managed to get a touch over 2K miles on them Here is my experience.

First is they had pretty good grip compared to the Primo Comets installed OEM on Blue, but a little more rolling resistance at recommended pressure. When pumped to the same pressure the Metros rolled a bit easier than the Comets. They also had a much better ride than the Comets at the recommended pressure, and a slightly better ride at the higher pressure recommended for the Comets.

They have an amazing wear characteristic compared to the Comets which had a bald strip down the center by 2K miles where the Metros are still showing good tread (and until a couple hundred miles ago still had the nubbies showing). Also the Metros have been ridden at a much higher GVW than the Comets were as I didn’t get the kitty litter buckets installed until a couple hundred miles before I installed the Metros.

So, in a nutshell compared to the OE Comets the Metros have better grip, slightly lower rolling resistance, better ride, and longer tread life. Not bad for a tire sold from the deep discount rack at Performance Bikes. I don’t know if the Metro is still available in this size, I had read that it was being discontinued in favor of a smaller width tire in the 559mm rim size. EDIT 10/01/2012: The 559-37 (26 x 1.5) size is available again, but I don’t know if it’s the same tire I bought. EDIT 4/30/2013: I now have about 3K miles and still not showing serious wear yet. All the nubbies are gone, but there is still lots of tread depth remaining and rolling resistance is much less than before.

PSA, Opus

I was neither paid nor provided product for this review, this was a spontaneous report on a product I had bought with my own money. Since I don’t get very much of that don’t expect WoaB to turn into Consumer Reports for bicycles.

It’s still hot, and tweaks to the home-made sprts drink

The trip home from church was made in 100°F heat while the trip to church was “only” 94°F. The humidity is low enough that those were the heat indexes as well as the actual temperatures, but to be honest once the actual temperature gets above normal body temperature I don’t think it really matters any more you’re going to suffer. And while I didn’t suffer much, it was definitely uncomfortable riding around in the heat, especially now that I’m back in training for the standing ¼ mile. I was pushing a 82 inch gear on what is basically a beach cruiser with a storage shed on the back. It’s a great workout, but in this heat it’s an effort. The interesting thing is my average speed only went up about a mile an hour, but my cruise speed went up by about 5 MPH, from 13 to 18 MPH.

With all that heat, I have had to tweak the recipe for the sports drink. I had to reduce the amount of the Lite Salt I used because there just was not enough sugar in the world to make tea drinkable with ¼tsp of salt per 8 fl. oz. By only putting ¼tsp per 24 fl. oz. I can drink the whole 24 oz. quickly and get the benefits of the fluid and the salt. The taste still isn’t the best, I think that I may have to make the tea extra strong and add extra sugar to make it taste like tea with the salt added, which will make it taste like poo without the salt. And I’m reconsidering my decision not to use the citric acid in the drink because it was supposed to cut the extreme saltiness of the drink when added with extra sugar. Most of the taste altering parts of the recipe are sugar to hide the salt or to hide the taste of the things that are supposed to hide the taste of the salt. I’m trying to avoid either too much sugar or artificial sweeteners. So I’m getting some electrolytes but not as much as I would from a commercial electrolyte drink.

I mentioned that I was training for the standing ¼ mile, although I’m looking more to next year now than this. What I have been doing is using a gear about equal to the low gear I’m going to use on the drag bike but with a heavier bike that has a bunch more aero drag. Now the trick will be what will happen when I go from low to high which is 2.090909091 times higher than low or about 165 gear inches. But for the moment riding Blue with the same gear as what my low gear will be will get my legs used to pushing a huge load at a low cadence. My normal way of riding is to spin a small gear ridiculously fast so this is way different than what I normally do. Because of the nature of the standing ¼ mile I will need to be able to do both, mash the big gear and spin at ridiculous cadences. The modelling software says I’ll need to spin that low gear to about 150 RPM and spin the top gear to about 120 if I want a chance at the IHPVA record, set back in the late 20^thCentury at 26.960 on 08/08/92 for a single rider or 20.642 on 10/02/82 for multiple riders. I might have a shot at both records if I train hard enough and build the bike light enough and stiff enough. The trick is to get the low speed part of the run done as quickly as possible, so that the vehicle is already moving fast for the early part of the run and still make it aero for the last half of the run. Track cyclists riding the 1000m time trial get close to or under 30 seconds for the ¼ mile without streamlining or the ability to change gears, so training, light-weight and stiff bike with decent aero, and just a bit of luck to make the attempt on a day when everything is going good for me physically and I might just be able to get a sub-27 second elapsed time.

Of course that pre-supposes that some clown on a cell phone doesn’t take me out while I’m waiting for a red light (you know, that thing that cyclists never do?).

PSA, Opus

We went to see Dad yesterday, Wreck-free Sunday

For those wanting to know how Dad is doing we took time out of creating yesterday’s post to go visit Dad in the hospital and find out what’s what. He’s gaining weight, slowly. He’s recovering from the opportunistic infections he got because he was weakened by not eating. To be succinct, he is recovering slowly. The main barrier to his getting better more quickly is his poor state of nutrition, which was mostly due to his long-tern minor depression, which is something else they are trying to get a handle on. When all this stuff is under control, then he will be sent to long-term care to gain weight and get strong enough to return home. I foresee Dad being able to attend Thanksgiving dinner in TX this year.

As I have mentioned a few times in the past, I’m a big proponent of e-assist to maximise human range by letting the rider do what people do best, delivering steady low power outputs for a long time, while using assist to do things that motors and batteries do better than people, delivering bursts of high power efficiently. This is the crux of an extended argument that has been going on in the Yahoo group power assist for about a year and a half between John A. and Randy. Randy has been arguing about testing with pedalling, saying that it muddies the data by adding human power to the battery output. John has been saying exactly! you need to be testing an assist bike while pedalling because they are not scooters but bicycles with assist. I have been using the simulator at ebikes.ca and their less-expensive NineContinents hub motor coupled to the LiFeBatt P20 cells (because I have the detailed specs on those cells needed to plug into the simulator and also to estimate pack weight). I plugged in a standard weight of 330 pounds from the drop-down menu, and went back and forth between the various motors and wheel sizes available from their store (and controllers) to find the combination that would climb well without overheating but be pretty much all done at 20 MPH and 6% grade with between 100 and 150 Watts of human input. Climbing at 20 MPH with a touring load (the 330 pounds GVW I based the simulations on) takes more power than most humans are able to put out for more than a couple of minutes. The combination of the right motor and wheel size with the right battery pack will allow climbing without overheating and cruising on human power for flat to mildly rolling terrain. I’ll leave the selection of motor and wheel and battery pack to my readers (I have made the choice for my bike, but I don’t want to deny your fun of using the simulator). If the rider has access to grid power during the ride with the bike, battery, motor, and wheel I have selected you can make a lunch stop and recharge for about an hour and have about 300 miles of range in a single day’s ride with enough clothes to have an indefinite duration stay at your destination and also an indefinite number of days on the road, assuming access to laundry facilities (300 miles will take about 17 hours total, 15 hours on the bike). If you can ride 300 miles a day on an e-bike with all the clothes you need when you get where you need to go, why would you need a car?

PSA, Opus

Still laboring under the delusion that no news is good news, and the Feed

Well I didn’t hear anything from the VA all day yesterday, so I’m going to take that as a sign that Dad is doing hunky-dory (I know, who says “hunky-dory” these days?). Mrs. the Poet will be making the arduous trek via DawgBus starting tonight and be here tomorrow afternoon. Saturday’s post may be a few hours late

I’m not posting any links because it has nothing to do with bicycles, really, but the big story in the Feed this morning was there were a number of people seen riding bicycles in the video of the naked guy eating the man’s face in Miami. Not mentioned was there were an even larger number of people driving cars past the altercation, but I’m assuming they were excused because nothing that goes on outside a car is of any concern to the driver… which also explains why FL is the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bike 6 years running now.

Up first, a ghost bike is installed for the teen cyclist killed after falling from an obstructed sidewalk in NC and being run over by a semi. Memorial in place to remember Myers Park student killed riding bike This is another reason why sidewalks =/= bicycle infrastructure. The cyclist bumped one of the garbage cans in the sidewalk with the end of his handlebars which tossed him into the street just as the semi was passing.

Next up a cyclist towing a child-carrying trailer is hit and the trailer run over in CA. Modesto woman riding in child’s bicycle trailer is hit by SUV, dies And doesn’t a driver that runs one of those trailers over pretty much say to the world that they don’t care about anything smaller than a compact car? Since the wreck happened in an intersection, use intersection protocols to avoid, and get the infrastructure right to prevent a similar wreck.

A child cyclist is run over in a crosswalk according to initial reports from IL. Boy Killed Riding Bike In Round Lake Heights The report as it stands as I post this is the child was hit by the trailer being towed by the weapon vehicle, and that the weapon vehicle had the green. Intersection protocols to avoid, but this would be a place that would not be allowed to exist in the Dutch model of infrastructure as it is a high-speed arterial that directly connects to a residential street. In the Dutch model the arterial would be much slower if located that close to a residential area, or there would have been a connecting bike path that separated off from the arterial but went to the same places. But there would never be an intersection like the one that killed this child.

A cyclist’s life is permanently changed by a hit-and-run driver in LA. Bicyclist injured in hit & run, search continues for suspect No word on the mode of the wreck, but you know what I think of the driver and what he or she deserves.

A CA cyclist making a left on the green arrow is hit by a truck making a right on red from the opposite direction onto the same street. Cyclist Critically Injured By Right-Turning Truck This one is so easy to figure out I’m surprised no tickets have been issued to the truck driver yet. The cyclist had the clear right of way with the green light, the driver had to wait until the way was clear before turning with a right on red. Intersection protocols to avoid, and get the infrastructure right including ticketing drivers (and cyclists) that run red lights and cause wrecks, to prevent. I see this wreck as no different than a driver running the red during a bike green with separated bike infrastructure.

In the Great White North another cyclist is injured. UPDATED: Cyclist transferred to London hospital Another left-cross wreck where the driver violated the cyclist’s right of way, intersection protocols to avoid, and get the infrastructure right so bikes and motor vehicles are not trying to occupy the road at the same time (and space).

The rest of the links today are Infrastructure! of one kind or another, either physical or legal.First one up is about mountain bike infrastructure from the Twin Cities. River Bottoms Part II By: Chris Chavie Come the Zombie Apocalypse all cycling will be “off-road”, this is a good time to get in some practice.

The Bicycle Federation reviews the infrastructure where there were two people killed on the same road in 2 years. Bicycle Federation of WI in Wausau After Fatal Bike Accident This was in response to a second fatal wreck on KK.

Staten Island credits infrastructure changes in reducing the death toll on the streets. Deaths on Staten Island hit a record low: Traffic strategies saving lives Notice that improving bicycle infrastructure has a collateral effect of reducing the number of fatal wrecks for everyone. Bicycle infrastructure slows motor vehicle traffic while maintaining total vehicle throughput, and slowing motor vehicle speeds reduces both the number and severity of wrecks with all modes of transportation. It’s a win/win/win solution.

General legal infrastructure in VA. Some Biking Rules and Tips for the Road in Virginia Note that even the most restrictive FRAP rules in the US still allow cyclists to take the lane in many if not most situations. While IANAL, the person that wrote the linked article is a lawyer.

And Jolly Olde is decidedly not Jolly about killer drivers getting less than a slap on the wrist. British Cycling and Cycling Weekly call on government to make justice system fairer for road users People are getting tired of killers getting community service and suspended jail terms for killing people with cars or other motor vehicles. Had some other weapon, like a cricket bat (culturally congruent for the location, we would use a baseball bat) or lead pipe been used, the person that killed would have spent years behind bars, but because they killed with a motor vehicle it’s an “accident” and not to blame the driver for killing.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus