Bike-commute day 40—to home

Monday, 20 June 2011.

I joked with Joe, our floors janitor, "I hope you arranged for my dry ride home today." He assured me that it was all paid for.

Such is the power of paying for the weather. It was sprinkling as I stepped outside.

But the light rain let up almost as soon as I reached the crossing of Research Boulevard, and I had only the wet pavement to navigate as carefully as possible. Avoid the lane markings, especially the white paint. It's usually much slicker than even the yellow stripes. And once on the bikeway at Spaulding, even the painted markings diminished to the areas preceding the intersections across the streets.

I had fully recharged the Garmin device, and it functioned well, even with the heavy cloud cover. I skipped out on a side trip to the gym, in case the coming rain advanced more quickly than I guessed from the weather radar. After I cleared the bikeway under the canopy, the way was dry. So about 50% was wet or damp, and half was easily navigated.

Ride conditions
Temperature: 71 to 74°F at 16:45
Precipitation: moderate rainfall between 10 a.m. and noon, isolated showers in the afternoon, wet bikeway for about 50%
Winds: calm
Clothing: Skinsuit, ankle socks, open-finger gloves.
Bike: Lotus Legend fixed gear
Time:  00:44:22 for 12.00 miles
Heart rate: 117 bpm average, 141 bpm maximum
Bikeway users: 4 cyclists, 7 pedestrians, 1 dog
Here is a playback of the ride.

Bike-commute day 31—to gym and home

I needed to make the ride and gym work quick today, so I would have time to feed Howard-the-dog, shower, and make it to the 8 p.m. screening of In a Better World.

It seemed fine by the online radar and by feel on the road to Cardinal Fitness. But it had started to sprinkle after my 20-minute power shoulders workout. By the time I approached Linden, it had turned to real rain, though a light rain. It continued so for about a mile before tapering off. The roads were still wet, though, and I cautiously navigated corners and stops.

The ick factor was how much road splash my ankle-high cycling shoes caught and retained. The shoes were soaked through by the time the rain stopped. —The shoes and socks were still wet the next morning.

At the concrete bank of the Mad River, which is my gauge of whether the river is flooded as it joins the Great Miami, the water churned and roiled from the recent increase of flow.

• The Mad River's normal depth allows all of the concrete and its bottom horizontal edge to show, and a ribbon of mud embankment below the concrete is visible. 
• As the Mad River rises, the water covers the western end of the horizontal edge first. 
• Usually when half the length of the horizontal edge is covered, at least the depression in the bikeway west of the Webster Avenue bridge will be flooded. 
• If all the horizontal edge is covered, then at least another depression east of Webster Avenue is also flooded. 

This evening, the full horizontal edge was covered, and it looked to be at least two feet deep at the eastern end. So clearly only Monument Avenue was the viable way toward downtown. At the traffic signal on Findlay Street, I saw Tom Helbig stopped from the opposite direction. He was headed home, on the bike that he used to visit the Research Park bike to work event this morning.

You and Ohio law
I found an excellent summary of Ohio traffic laws that relate to cycling.

Ride conditions
Temperature: 65 to 68°F at 17:10
Precipitation: none, then a lot
Winds: calm to 5 mph from the south
Clothing: Skinsuit; ankle socks. Open-finger gloves.
Bike: Trek 850
Time: 01:03:04 for 14.90+ miles
Heart rate: 125 bpm average, 138 bpm maximum
Bikeway users: 4 cyclists, 7 pedestrians, 1 dog
Here is a playback of the ride. 15th Garmin day.

Bike-commute day 16—home

Ride conditions
Temperature: 57 to 63°F at 17:43
Precipitation: intermittent rain, usually light
Winds: 10 to 15 mph from the west
Clothing: 2-layer top, skinsuit; ankle socks. open-finger gloves.
Bike: Trek 850 hybrid
Time: 00:44:50 for 10.74 miles
Bikeway users: none

Split information Note that I forgot to press Start until I reached the turn from Spaulding onto the bikeway.

Bike commute day 6, heading home

It had begun to rain very lightly by 16:20. I closed up work as quickly as possible and headed out for the commute. The object: get home safely, not necessarily quickly. Accomplished, though the ride was generally pretty good with the rain letting up to a sprinkle from Woodman through the end.

Temperature: 62°F at 16:25, 53°F at 18:10
Precipitation: light rain
Winds: 5 to 10 mph from the west
Clothing: Skinsuit; ankle socks; open-finger gloves. Very cold.
Time: 0:56:00 (approx.) for 12.5 miles
Bikeway users: 10 cyclists, 13 pedestrians

17:02—depart from work.
17:17—trestle remains at Linden.
17:30—west gate to Eastwood Park.
17:40—passing the zig-zag up from the Mad River Bikeway.
17:58—arrive home.

Rain day #11

Light rain has been falling through the night, and it continues this morning. And as I look outside now at 7:24, it is still too dark to bike safely through the city streets. The heavy cloud cover on this rainy day deepens and lengthens the darkness. Twilight has begun to dispel the dark, but it will be several minutes before I could consider riding.

Editing in a later comment at 7:51, it is now just light enough to start my biking, though my cutoff for departure has already passed at 7:40. Any later start would have me arriving too late at my desk, especially now early in the bike commuting season, when I am a bit slower in transit.

Daylight calculators
In these weeks after the change to Daylight Saving Time and before the change to Standard Time in the fall, I watch carefully for the point when I can safely be on the roads. I also consult several online calculators for understanding when the daylight will be suitable for biking. One site provides a data presentation, one line for each day. (From the link, you need to select your location and then select See sunrise/sunset.) This presentation can be set for the current week or the current month. You can also chose among 3 groups of information for the columns.

timeanddate.com : week sun times

Another site provides similar presentation that highlights the line for today. (From this link, navigate to the very bottom of the long list of cities, and select Sunrise sunset and current times. Then select your location from the long list.) This presentation is not as concise, though it does present the information for today near the top of the data. I suspect this site also creates a pop-up window for ads, so make sure your browser prevents pop-ups. The ads between selections are also very obstrusive if your browser does not prevent ads.

timesunrisesunset.com : quarter sun times

Another site creates a calendar of the sunrise and sunset times. (From this link, select More... from the world area you're interested in, then select your state, then select your city and other parameters, then select Make calendar.)

sunrisesunset.com : March calendar

Another site provides the sunrise time for one day at a time. (From this link, enter the question "What time is (sunrise OR sunset) in (your state)?") The question-answer format allows little leeway in varying your question.

trueknowledge.com : sunrise today

Rain day #10

I went to bed last night with an expectation of seeing rain in the morning. I wasn't disappointed.

The rain was fairly light, but enough to keep me from riding on slick paths. There were only a couple of problems: my Mazda MPV is still at work from my change in transportation mode yesterday, and Chuck's Chrylser Concorde won't start because of a low battery, since it has been idled while he is wintering in Palm Springs. And I still would like to have my trusty steed (the Trek 750 crossover mountain bike) at work, just in case the skies clear by late afternoon.

But all is not lost. A coworker, Doug Tomlinson, lives within a mile of me, drives his Jeep to work, and consistently so at 7:00 a.m. It is now 6:45. The decision has come. I call Doug to see if I have caught him between coffee and car. And, as true to schedule as Phileas Fogg, he will be ready to leave in a few—exactly 14—minutes.

I hurry through preparations that normally take me at least 45 minutes: close down the kitchen, take Howard out for his "hurry-up," do my own hurry-up, change from lounging clothes to work clothes, floss and brush my teeth, pull together cycling clothes into my backpack, strap on my RoadID, and assure that I have packed the essentials of cellphone, wallet, pocket money, and unread sections of the Wall Street Journal. I'll decide at work if I need to shower at some point, whether early in the day or at lunch. —The gym at work provides a possibility of fitting in a workout if rain continues and a bike commute home is unlikely.

At 7:01, with the added one minute to account for the side trip 5 blocks southwest of Salem, Doug is in my drive. I lock up the house, roll my bike to his car, and help load it in. Another workday begins.

Allow for Flexibility
One aspect of commuting by bike is weather, which can change during the day at work. And experience shows that using the weather forecasts is never so reliable that you can make exact plans for biking or driving. Another aspect of bike commuting is the length of usable daylight for the commutes at either end of a workday of 8 to 10 hours. (Yes, sometimes I have to work a long day. I am used to that. Sometimes I can even control that, by scheduling the long days to fit planned project deliveries or goals.)

I've developed a comfortable habit of leaving my car at work overnight, when that suits my needs for commuting by bike or car. The workplace provides a secure parking lot with lights and the possibility that someone might be viewing the lots at almost any time of day. The security guards on duty throughout the evening and night make an occasional round at the entrances and peer out into the parking lots.

In the Spring and Fall, when the daylight hours are short, I typically drive one way, with my bike packed inside the minivan, and bike the opposite direction each day—Friday excepted. The schedule works out very well for getting the car home for weekend use.

Monday: drive to work, bike home
Tuesday: bike to work, drive home
Wednesday: drive to work, bike home
Thursday: bike to work, drive home
Friday: drive to work, drive home OR bike to work, bike home

I use a modification of this schedule for rain days or for days when the forecast predicts rain. That is, if I am deciding on the mode of transportation where I have both bike and car to choose from.

But sometimes I'm stuck with actual rain while I'm at home or at work with the bike and without the car. That's when alternative modes of transportation can come into play. There's my coworker Doug, there's the RTA (Regional Transit Authority), and there's actually riding in the rain. So far, I've never used the RTA, although many of its buses are equipped with a front rack that can hold several bikes. I've been told the entire bus trip takes an hour, including the walk from the last bus stop to the office in Research Park. That walk from the bus stop says to me: "You'll get wet even when you take the bus." I prefer to ride in the rain instead of taking that wet walk from the bus stop. After all, I can shower and change into clean, dry clothes in the locker room.

Rain day #8

Temperature: 41°F at 08:00
Precipitation: light to moderate rain
Winds: none to 5 mph
Clothing: Work casual
Time: not available
Bikeway users: not available


It's continued raining off and on since yesterday. Roads were spottily dry this morning, and rain is again forecast to continue through the day. So today I can go to Cardinal Fitness after work and then to Practice Yoga again.

But also, the hard drive crashed overnight on my laptop. I've got to bring it to some IT service to verify that the crash is real, and to replace it if necessary. My updates may be infrequent until next week.

Rain day #7

Temperature: 41°F at 07:00
Precipitation: light to moderate rain
Winds: none to 5 mph
Clothing: Work casual
Time: not available
Bikeway users: not available


It's been raining since about midnight. Roads are too wet for riding, and rain is forecast to continue through the day.

Rainy Saturday

Temperature: 50°F.
Preciptation: rain
So my decision not to bike yesterday was borne out, throughout a day of rain, sometimes heavy. It's raining still, and I've decided to go to Practicce Yoga this morning at 11:00 for open vinyasa. I took an alendronate sodium pill as soon as I got up at 9:00, and I'm now waiting the 30 to 60 minutes before eating a light breakfast.

Bike commute today ...or not

Look, I've wasted too much time worrying whether it was gonna rain today on my ride to work and back home. It's now 7:50; far too late to start out by bike and make it early enough to the desk to leave by 4:30. And it is indeed raining now, but so lightly that rationalization could have persuaded me to bike. Here are the forecast page and the radar page.
Today's forecast

Latest radar

And now I'm committed to driving to work. I'll pack in my bike, in case it's dry this evening and a Courteous Mass ride works out.