Well it happened.  The 2012 Bike to Work Week is now in it’s last day.  I have commuted by bike four out of five days this week.

The stats?

• Biked over 100 miles.
• Saved about $16 in gas.
• Exercised about six hours.
• 110 pounds of CO2 not emitted into the environment.

Looking at these stats that’s not bad for one person in one week (patting myself on the back). But I can do more.  I can write about the reasons and advantages of walking/biking to work.  I can continue to expand these personal accomplishments from Bike to Work Week to every week of the year (well, OK, winter in Wisconsin is tough to do this) or at least the six months a year when cycling in Wisconsin is absolutely doable.

What issue does this affect?

• Biking to work helps my personal finances
• Biking to work helps my peace of mind and makes me a better person
• Biking to work fights obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and keeps me in good health
• Biking to work helps our nation become energy independent
• Biking to work helps fight global warming

Now, what would happen if you joined me in biking to work, school, or where ever you go to most? We can change the world for the better and it is time we started doing so and not waiting for the government or new technology. We can make a huge difference now!

And it starts with you.

Cycling in windy conditions is a cyclists lot. There is rarely a time when the wind is completely calm, and even then, wind resistance is the number one speed limitation. Hub bearings can be made to roll with very little resistance, an expensive wheel set can be quite light greatly reducing rolling weight, the tire “footprint” on pavement can be only a couple square centimeters. We live in an age of 15 pound bicycles, a cyclists dream, but wind will always hold you back.

For the past week, I have known that I was either going to bike to work or ride-share today. Yesterday, I looked at the weather and saw not only lower temperatures for the morning commute but also a headwind of 8 MPH from the North East, almost directly in the direction of my commute to work. Now, there is no way to avoid a wind like that. Usually there is a light wind (maybe 3 MPH) at 6 AM so I don’t worry about wind direction in the morning. But, when at 6 AM the wind is foretasted to be 8 MPH, you must pay attention! Accordingly I planned to leave 10 minutes earlier.

So, this morning as I started my commute out of town toward work it hit me. Not 8, but 10 to 15 MPH wind directly into my face. There were times when the wind was slightly from one side or the other, but it was always from the front.

There are several things cyclist come to realize about biking into the wind. The first is, IT SUCKS! The first time I really noticed it was when I was much younger. I left home one beautiful spring day (with the wind) heading north. It felt great to speed on my bicycle again down the familiar lake shore roads. After about an hour of blissful speed, I thought I would turn around and go home. A two hour bike ride is long enough early in the year. Upon turning around I was struck with a 15 MPH headwind. It took over two hours to bicycle back home, and I was completely exhausted. Lesson One: before you embark on a ride, check the wind and bike against it going out so you will have the energy to get home and end your ride in relative comfort by cycling with the wind.

This morning I started out in my big ring (largest front gear) as I biked through town, but less than a mile out of town I realized I had just shifted into my lowest rear gear cross cutting the chain. Cross cutting the chain is not a good Idea, it wears heavier on the components (your chain is actually bending putting stress on it and your chainrings) and usually chain and front derailleur will make a grinding noise on my bikes (I do this purposely so I know immediately I have done so and shift gears to correct). I was shocked that I was in the low gears even on the flat and downhill portions of my commute. Lesson Two: It’s not shameful to Gear Down when riding into a headwind.

Through the years I have had many “close” calls including vehicles that pass leaving less than one foot between their vehicle and my bike.  Just the other day I had a truck pass me with his mirror narrowly missing my shoulder. Once the vehicle had passed me, the truck moved over so that it’s wheels were nearly off the pavement.  Perhaps this means the driver did not know how wide the vehicle was, but that is no excuse.  I have also had cars pass my bicycle on narrow county roads with oncoming traffic.  The cars were literally inches from my bike, a very unsafe thing to do.  I had been being polite in being all the way to the right.  I then realized that some drivers would see this as an opportunity to pass, even though state law prohibits passing with less than three feet clearance.  My way of cycling changed after a couple of these experiences.  I now bike out into the lane at least three feet so that there is no room for a car to pass against oncoming traffic.  This is more frustrating for the drivers I am sure, but it is much safer and does not allow an individual to pass in an unlawful way.

What most drivers don’t understand is that their vehicle “moves air” in odd and sometimes unforeseen ways. And when there is a strong wind, these effects are exacerbated to the point that they become dangerously unpredictable in close proximity.  How many drivers have experienced this while passing large trucks?  This can be very unsettling in a winter storm.  But, a bicycle is not as aerodynamic as an automobile and “feels” air displacement more drastically than other vehicles.

Lesson Three: Expect the unexpected.  This morning provided a few example of the third lesson.  When trucks would pass from behind there would be a fairly strong “sucking” of air as they passed.  Not the strongest I have felt, but lesser experienced cyclist may find it very unsettling.

Another odd thing cyclists notice is that the terrain makes a huge difference in the wind.  When I was a young cyclists I raced from time to time.  I quickly began to realize that you could use the wind during races.  How?  Well, I am no sprinter, so the only way I can win a race (never happened) or even place (if fourth place counts it happened once) is to take advantage of my endurance.  On one race day there was a very strong wind.  And around the first lap I noticed that the wind was from the front and just to the left of us as we came around the first of three 7 mile loops on the back end of the coarse.  This was fall and there was corn growing on the side of the roads.  Well I decided to use this to my advantage and on the second lap broke away with four other guys just as we turned with the wind.

I quickly found out that these were not the best of cyclists as I was leading most the way through the near side of the coarse and actually went across the “start/finish” line first.  On the back side I went to the far left and could barely feel the wind.  The corn was protecting me from it.  Well I couldn’t hold up for two laps and the guys I was with started dropping off.  The pack caught us after the third lap and I did not place.  However I learned lesson four.  Lesson Four: Terrain affects wind.

OK, there are other lessons you should know about the wind when cycling, such as when and how to expectorate.  But I will leave this as is for now.

The last two days of riding have been great, I am riding on my Look pedals from the 80′s and an old pair of Lotto shoes.  My mph average is up to 18!

Since the dog ate my Sidi Genius 5 shoe I have been looking for a new pair of cycling shoes to replace the Sidi’s.  In the mean time, I had thought I could get by with my mountain bike shoes.  My mountain bike shoes are an old pair of blue leather Nikes that I have never been comfortable in.  When I bought them from a store I used to work at, the owner said, “If they don’t feel right out of the box, don’t worry, they’re leather and will form to your foot.”  Reluctantly I bought them.  He was totally wrong!  They never formed to my feet and feel just as bad now as the moment I first tried them on.  I have never truly enjoyed mountain biking simply because of these shoes that hurt my feet.  I should have just thrown these shoes out and bought a new pair.

Last week I had placed an older pair of SPD pedals on my road bike and used the old mountain bike shoes.  After two days of riding with them, a toe on my right foot was black and blue, and both feet hurt.  I vowed never to ride with them again.  The SPD pedals came off with nothing to take their place.  I hoped to pick up a pair last weekend in Madison and found a pair of Mavic Zxellium shoes in white.  I have always had black shoes and the white just seemed wrong to use with my black bike.  I also could not find the old package where I had the shims for my Speedplay cleats.

I ended up finding my old Lotto cycling shoes that I bought back in the 80′s.  The Lotto shoes are compatible with my old Look pedals of which I have three sets.  So I set up the shoes and put the pedals on the bike.

The shoes felt great from the moment I put them on.  The old Italian leather Lotto shoes fit as if I was 20 again.  I know, you loose a lot of power because the soles are not nearly as stiff as the Mavic shoes would be, but man, what a feeling to be riding on shoes and pedals that are 20 some years old.  I felt nostalgic and completely fulfilled riding with them.  Ah, Italy.

Well, I didn’t wimp out today, honestly.  A dog ate my shoe!

It’s no secret that cyclists and dogs don’t always get along.  If you are a cyclist you have undoubtedly been chased by a dog a few times, or perhaps too many times to count.  Generally, dogs are a nuisance and are sometimes downright dangerous to cyclists when biking, but, well this is a new one for me.

I came down stairs to go out and take a ride.  I walked out to our front porch to pump up my tires and put on my shoes, but where the previous evening I know I had my pare of cycling shoes I only saw one!

I had left them on our porch to dry off after a muddy and rainy ride the other day.  They had been too wet to just put in their normal spot, and I usually take my cycling shoes off on the porch so that the cleats don’t scratch our floors.  But there, where there had been two shoes was now only one.

I took a little glance around and saw a boot in my neighbor’s yard.  Uh oh!  Yes, it was a boot!  Immediately I suspected what had happened.  I walked out to our front walkway and over to our neighbor’s house.  Our neighbors had just moved in in the spring.  Their dog, part Blue Healer which is a very pretty dog, has a fenced in back yard, but has on numerous occasions escaped the fence and has roamed the neighborhood usually doing nothing more than running away from it’s owner and having doggy fun.  Today however my fears of actual property damage were realized when I walked up their front walk and saw the remains of my right Sidi Genius 5 cycling shoe lying in the grass inside the gated side and back yard.  I walked through the OPEN Gate of the fence and my heart sank as I approached the shoe and saw that part of the heal was gone and the strap that latches the shoe shut had been chewed off.

We had not seen the neighbors all weekend and they did not appear to be home at that point either.  I sighed and walked back to our porch soggy doggy drool infested shoe in hand.  I was angry that the dog had destroyed my shoe, but I was not angry at the dog.  In Lancaster, Wisconsin residents are responsible for their pets’ actions.  This means that because Asia (that’s the dog’s name) was left once again to easily escape her fenced in domain that I will have to confront my neighbors and let them know that they owe me a new pair of $250 cycling shoes.

More to come I am sure.

A Lesson for Cyclists in Visibility to Traffic for a Safe Bicycle Commute to Work

Well, I biked to work once so far in 2011. Yesterday I got up early, found what I thought was all my bicycling gear, and headed out the door only to turn around a block down the road and go back for my helmet.

My lights were on as I headed out of town.  Most cars came by at a good, safe distance including a co-worker of mine. To stay visible to traffic I usually use two lights, a headlight and a taillight and I try to wear as much visible-wear (cycling clothes that are either bright or have reflective elements on them) as I can.  A lot of cycling equipment and clothes come with reflective elements already on them.  My helmet has a reflective tape in the rear, my shoes also have reflective fabric in thee rear.  The Jackets I wear are bright and have reflective tape on them.  This morning I was using a Beamer 5 as my headlight and a blinking 3 LED taillight.  I had only a small amount of visible wear visible.  My helmet and jacket were both visible, but because of the cold I was wearing an old set of neoprene booties that covered the reflective fabric on my shoes.  I thought this was enough.

During the coarse of the day I met up with the coworker that had passed me on our way in. The conversation that ensued made me rethink my being visible on the road. He had passed me as it was just getting light out.  He hadn’t seen me until he was very close.  I couldn’t believe it.  I had the blinky light on and he hadn’t seen it from much of a distance.  We discussed the visibility of my Jacket which he said that during that hour of the morning blended in to the pre-dawn light.  Then we discussed the blinky light.

I had placed the light on the back pocket of my jacket thinking that it would be most visible there.  It seems that was not the case.  We discussed it’s position and that it may have been partially covered by the fabric of the jacked, or it may have been facing more “up and back” than just straight back.  I came away with a frightening conclusion.  I was not as visible as I should be.

The proposed solution I have?  I am going to place a bracket on the bike and mount the rear 3 LED light to the bike.  Then, I will position the light to cast it’s light straight back.  Hopefully this will increase my visibility to traffic and make my commute a safer one.  I’ll keep you informed.

I, Mike Steffel, do here-by swear to try to bike to work every day that the roads are clear and weather does not create unsafe biking conditions. I swear to push myself to go to bed early, and get up with reasonable time to bike to work. I pledge that I will do this with enthusiasm and will post regular updates discussing my progress on this goal.  I do this with the goal of showing that anyone can bike to work and live a healthier, happier life while doing so.

This is it, I am taking a stand.  I am biking to work in all kinds of weather and all temperatures.  I will not allow my laziness to overcome my desire to do good for my self, my community (locally and globally), and my world.

OK, this all sounds good as I write this sitting in the comfort of my home having not road to work today, but what about putting it into practice?  Can I pull this off?  Is this realistic?  I guess we’ll find out.

The first test will come tomorrow morning when I am planning to bike to work and then bike to Potosi afterward to meet Kris at the Potosi Brewery for a beer and to fill our Growler.  There are $6 Growler refills on Tuesdays, so Kris and I thought this would make a great date night.  Perhaps we will make this a habit for our new year as well.

Over the weekend I had pause to look back at 2010 and look at what I have done.  I must say, I thought the year was a good one overall, but I am a little disappointed with myself.  Looking back, I did not loose the weight I wanted to, nor did I get to the physical point where I could just go out and run 5 miles any time I wanted to.  Also, I only rode 1, 700 miles last year.  I put more miles on the bike in the summer as a kid.  As my one way commute to work is now an extra 5 miles, my goal is to bring that yearly total up to over 3,500 miles for 2011.  You can watch my progress on Ride with GPS and see how I am doing at this goal (words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated).

I have a few “get in shape” goals for the new year.  I want to go below 190 and run under 50 minutes in a ten K run as well.  Tall order?  I think so, but I should be able to loose the weight even if I don’t bike to work as much or run as well as I would like.  So, just by striving to reach these goals I should do well by my self.

Today was the first day I commuted to my new job.  The commute by bicycle to Fennimore (12 miles) was not too difficult, however, my new job is another 5 miles distance from my home, so the commute by bike now takes a little more effort.

I started out this morning at 6:40 while the sun was still coming up. It felt good to be back on the bicycle after so many weeks out of the saddle.  While biking to work, I try to take it easy, so it was not surprising when I later found that the trip took me an hour.  The route I decided to bicycle this morning was the most direct route, but it is also more challenging than my commute to Fennimore.  But I had my blinky LED lights and was off.

I had just picked up a new headlight from the shop last week.  I chose a Beamer 5 (5 LED light that mounts to your handle bars) because I had been using a Beamer (one LED light) in the past and found it very reliable.  The reason for going with the five and not one LED was, of coarse, the brightness.  The Beamer 5 is significantly brighter than the Beamer or Beamer 3.  I will use it a few more times and then report on it.

Only a couple miles out of Lancaster and I was passed by Brad, who helps out in his wife and daughter’s bakery and coffee shop in Fennimore.  He slowed, gave a little honk, waved a fond farewell and sped off towards Platteville.  I will miss many people in Fennimore and Brad and his family are definitely among them.  It was nice to see him and I pondered for a moment all those who i would not be seeing as often.

The bicycle ride went on and I finally came into Platteville. For the first time I carried my bike up the two flights of stares to my office and changed for the day.

The bicycle ride home was a rude awakening to my commuting to Platteville by bike.  By the time I left the office at nearly 4:30, the sun had set and the sky was already getting dark.  Pink clouds lingered in the western sky and I was ready for a commute home in the dark, or was I?

The first part of the ride went fine, I challenged myself on a few hills and found that I was not feeling as chipper as I had been just a month ago.  I eased up on the ride knowing full well I had a challenging ride home still ahead of me.  I had decided to take a county road home and knew full well that in order to get home I had to ride up quite a few small hills as well as a few not so small ones.  A few miles away from the turn off that would take me north to Lancaster I was struggling and felt more like diverting south to Potosi for a beer at the brewery, but I knew full well, that would only lend to my agony later.  I finally turned north and progressed slowly in an exhausted haze.  I climbed each hill slower than the one before, “How many hills were there on this road?” was the main thought that filled my mind followed by thoughts of the food I would eat when I arived.   It felt like I was pulling the bike up the hills not rolling up.  I had hit the wall.

I was shaking and the headlight from my bike lurched in a dance that would make Elaine Bennis proud (Seinfield fans know what I mean).  Lancaster seemed far away and i was not making much headway.  It took determination just to stay pedaling.  It seemed a long time before the lights and homes of town came into view.  Even then, I wanted to pull over and just stop.  When I reached home, I ate anything.  My hands were shaking violently for half an hour while I put a pizza in the oven and ate a tortilla with cheese.  Not the gourmet meal I dreamed of while riding home on the bike, in the dark, for two hours.

Vacation is over, it’s time to bike!

I had taken a vacation a few weeks back and then came back more tiered than when I left.  I recuperated from that and then started to bike (a little). I biked to work the day after we got back and again last week once.  I know, that is not much.  But the weather is getting colder and the sun is up later and then sets earlier. Yuck!

So you think I am being a wimp?! OK, you got me.  But now, I will be biking to work most of the time! A change of heart, a realization that global warming is in part my responsibility?  Sadly, no.  My son’s car died over Labor Day weekend and he took our car back to Green Bay.

That’s right.  Now we are a one car family and I do not want to drive the mini-van to work!  If Kristin needs it for the daycare (getting groceries) or to shuttle Chelsea to something or other the van should be left in Lancaster.

In all fairness, Kris and Chelsea have been riding their bikes to work and school more often than I have been riding mine to work.  The van sat at home Tuesday and they had ridden their bikes most of last week.  Who needs a car?

Well, I may if we get rain.  I also hate the cold, and the daylight being lost every day!  I want to bike to work on June 20th with 16 hours of daylight in 87 degrees! Well, maybe next year.  From here to the foreseeable future, it is a lose of temperature and sunlight. RATS!

After a Week and a Half, I am Back on the Bike

I have been doing very well with biking to work on most days this summer despite the rain and even fog. But on the eleventh of this month we had a couple delightful guests visiting at our home.  They were part of a larger group of the Musikkapelle Heiden community band who had come to our community as part of a sister city exchange set up by band members in both communities.

Well part of our responsibility for being a host family was to get our guests to the places they needed to be and provide transportation when needed.  As a result, I ended up driving to work most days.  It was fun having our guests, but I did feel guilty about driving so much and not biking.

After our guests left, I took a rest day (Wednesday) to recover from all the late nights and early mornings. Then came the rain.  Thursday and Friday of last week saw thunder storms and quite a bit of rain.

Well today I rode my bike to work. It was great!  I enjoyed every peddal stroke and thought to myself “Ah, this is what I have been longing for, this is the part of my life that is now habit”.

Biked to work every day this week!

Finnally, I have realized my short term goal of biking to work every day in a week.  After my failures of doing so during the National Bike to Work Week and the Wisconsin Bike to Work Week, I was more than a little disheartened.  However, this last week the weather helped, as we had no rain.  Every day seemed the perfect day to ride!  OK, not quite.  The last few days were quite windy coming home.  Winds out of the Southwest kept me from pushing it too hard on the bike ride home.

I have also not figured out what’s going on with my crankset, as it keeps creaking.  I’ve taken it apart on several occasions lately and will now have to take it apart again.  I thought I was tightening it up enough, but perhaps not.  Well it also could be worn out.  I’m not sure how long splined bottom brackets are supposed to last, but perhaps I should invest in a new one. A new bottom bracket, what a reward for biking to work for a week.