Category Archives: Biking

Muscle memory

After hitting the gym very regularly during my pregnancy, things took a sharp turn post-baby.  Once I was cleared for take-off exercising again, I started going to the gym a couple of times a week, sometimes using the free childcare, sometimes leaving Gabriel with Matthew.

I fell into a somewhat regular pattern that completely fell apart once maternity leave ended and I went back to work full time.  After a couple of months of rarely darkening the door of the YMCA, I cancelled my membership.  I just couldn’t justify the $46 a month when I was making it there less than twice a week.

Enter unemployment and more free time — at Matthew’s urging, I’m considering gym options.  I’m torn between my familiar YMCA, which, due to our move, is now solidly in the “biking distance” category, or another gym that is just a couple of blocks away and easily walkable.

I’ve visited both gyms and worked out as a guest in the last two weeks, trying to get a feel for each facility and weigh the pros and cons.  While, on the whole, I’m much more active since I ditched the desk job for days filled with biking around with, and chasing after, a toddler, I’m enjoying the feeling of a good, full-body weight lifting session.*

If it weren’t for the distance, I’d probably pick the Y with little debate, despite it being more expensive.  However, I’d be bringing Gabriel with me most of the time, and I’m a little uncertain about biking with him in wintry weather.

If we have a very mild winter, like last year, it would be a moot point.  But you never know with the weather — with the YMCA, I may well be faced with the dilemma of driving (which I balk at since it’s less than two miles away) or skipping the gym on some days.

I’m still not sure what I’ll do on the gym question (though I should follow through and do one or the other), but I will be looking into some kind of under-the-helmet head covering for Gabriel so we’re ready for chilly rides, one way of the other.  Do they make balaclavas for toddlers?

*Not one to ease back into things, I returned home after the first workout and proceeded to hang a load of laundry, only to find that I could barely lift my arms up to hang the clothes on the line — oops!

The bad and the ugly

Unfortunately, my good biking tale was not the only noteworthy bike-related happening last week.

The Bad
Two Sundays ago, Matthew discovered that his rear shifting cable was shot, despite the cable and the shifter itself being replaced quite recently.  He finished his ride using the three front gears (incidentally, this was also his inaugural ride with Gabriel in the IBert on his bike).

He’d been wanting to take it to the bike shop for a tune-up anyway, so he arranged a bike swap with his dad (he doesn’t have his own back up bike, which is something that we plan to remedy) and sent his trusty steed in for repair.

Matt’s two cents: “Winona has been very reliable.  It’s not her fault.”*

He was back on his own bike by Wednesday, setting off in the same cloudy, damp weather I experienced.  On his way into work, he noticed that his handlebars were loose.  Assuming the shop had forgotten to tighten something, he pulled out his tool set (we both usually bike with a few small tools for minor repairs) and tightened the handle bar stem.

The Ugly
All seemed well until after work, when he was over halfway home.  As he made a turn through an intersection, the handlebars came off and he crashed.  And I received the, “I’m mostly okay, but can you come and pick me up,” call.

His main injury was a badly sprained big toe — I’ve never had a serious toe injury, but it turns out that they can be pretty crippling.  He could walk, but not well, so he was pretty out of commission for a couple of days, doing the ice, elevate, and pain reliever drill.

The story on the bike was that the part of the stem that goes into the head tube  and secures with a long bolt cracked, so even though the bolt felt tight, it was slipping, more or less like it was stripped.  The bike shop’s best explanation was age/normal wear and tear, though it is not an especially old bike.

All in all, things could have been a lot worse, but this part failure definitely surprised us.  For summer biking, we had both eased away from what, at least for me, had been a hard and fast “no open-toed shoes while biking” rule into wearing Teva sandals.  I enjoyed being able to wear the kind of footwear that I wanted at my destination, no carting around an extra pair of shoes required.

Since sturdy, closed-toe shoes probably would have prevented the sprain, we’re obviously rethinking our footwear choices.  Due to the injury Matt’s trying to find something that’s foot shaped and waterproof, but with a thick sole — anyone have any suggestions?  He normally wears Birkenstocks or Five Fingers, as he can’t find any other footwear that is shaped like his feet.

We both feel that biking is generally safe enough, but it certainly has its dangers, just like ANY form of transit/most of life in general.  This was a scary, startling, and painful experience, but Matt can’t wait to ditch the bus and get back to his faster, more energetic commute.
*Bonus points if you can guess the name of the TV series from which that quote originated.  Hint: Matthew likes sci-fi. 

Mind over matter

After a bit of debate, I decided to officially toss my hat into the unemployed ring and file for unemployment.  This is a completely new experience for me, but after the initial paperwork and approval process, I’ve settled into the routine of filing a weekly claim.

It’s pretty easy since it can be done online, but I have to report in person every four weeks to one of the local career centers.  For my first four week report, I drove to the nearest location, which was more or less on the way to my MIL’s, where I headed afterward to pick up Gabriel.

Last week, I planned my second four-week check-in to coincide with a time when my father-in-law was coming over to watch Gabriel for a couple of hours.  The night before, I realized that there was no excuse for driving the car to the career center and no reason I couldn’t bike there.

Still, I spent that evening and the morning-of flip flopping between biking and driving.  At less than four miles away on familiar streets, the trip was completely doable by bike, but most of my bike trips these days have been of the 2-4 mile round trip variety, and this would be more in the 7-8 mile range.  And, while the route was plenty familiar from inside a car, there were parts that I hadn’t biked before.

The heavy rain overnight and the gray clouds, with the threat of more rain, didn’t help sway me toward the bike.  Still, as my departure time approached, it wasn’t actively raining, or at least not much, and the radar revealed that the clouds’ bark was probably worse than their bite.

In the end, the opportunity to get some exercise on the way to and from a not so fun errand won out, and I dressed for biking (and the possibility of getting wet).  I rode Baby Jake for the first time in quite awhile (I’ve been riding Bub exclusively since we moved here in June), and the hardest part of the whole ride was just getting the bike ready for the errand — tires aired up, milk crate reattached to the rear rack, etc.

While I encountered a few sprinkles as I set out, I reached my destination invigorated and relatively dry, happy in my transportation choice.  By the time of my return trip, the sun broke through the clouds to reveal a beautiful fall morning.  I arrived home, very happy that I’d silenced the excuses in my head and opted to go by bike.

Bike Portland

I knew I couldn’t go to Portland without experiencing the bike scene firsthand, so I was thrilled when Matthew’s sister told us she would have bikes and a trailer for us.  There would also be two extra adult helmets awaiting us, so, with Gabriel’s helmet in our checked bag, we were good to go.

When we arrived, we toured the Bike Cave and saw our rides for the week – two shiny blue road bikes and a Burley double wide trailer.  I was a bit apprehensive about Gabriel in the trailer, since he very much prefers the front seat at home (as do I), but after looking at it, we’d decided it didn’t really make sense to bring the IBert with us.  (The seat is small compared to a trailer, but it would have required another checked bag.)

As anyone who bikes often knows, there’s no bike quite like YOUR bike.  Matthew and I both missed our properly fitted bikes, nose-less  saddles, and more upright riding positions.  That said, bringing our own bikes on this trip really wasn’t feasible, so having two nice bikes, outfitted with locks and lights, no less, at our disposal for the week was quite nice.

Our first ride was a short jaunt to a weekday downtown farmers’ market.  We used the Broadway Bridge to cruise into downtown, noting that we’d be heading uphill on the return trip.  After lunch at the market, we headed home for Gabriel’s nap.

Unfortunately, as Matthew was shifting on the uphill approach to the bridge, his chain derailed.  Hot midday sun, chain wedged tightly, tired and uncomfortable baby, stressed parents, and baby falling asleep in trailer and being rudely awakened combined for a not so great return trip and the decision to trade in the bikes for feet for the rest of that day.

In the interest of maximizing our time and trying to keep to a fairly regular nap schedule (and because Matthew, especially, was uncomfortable on the bike), we compromised and made more trips in the car than I would have preferred, but such is life these days.

On Saturday morning, Matthew and I enjoyed a solo bike ride to visit a couple of bakeries and make a grocery run in preparation for our trip to the Oregon coast.  I enjoyed shopping at the Trader Joe’s located right in the middle of Portland – very accessible by bike.

So . . . a few thoughts and observations on biking in Portland
Well, I am pleased to report that I did not get ticketed or arrested for refusing to let the paint think for me (i.e., obey their mandatory bike lane statute) while cycling around the city.

Going into the “Best Biking City in America,” the number of cars surprised (and disappointed) me.  But after putting things into perspective (bikes make up a 6-8% mode share in Portland, which, while huge compared to most American cities, still means that less than one out of ten trips are made by bicycle) and settling in a bit, I did notice some differences.

First, hanging out at the house in the evenings, we heard a slow but steady stream of cyclists passing by on the small street, something that does not happen on our similarly sized street at home in St. Louis.  Second, most motorists seemed pretty tuned in to interactions with other road users (both cyclists and pedestrians).  Most surprising to me were the multiple occasions where four lanes of traffic stopped at an intersection (when they didn’t have to, unless there’s some ordinance I’m not aware of) to allow bicyclists stopped at a stop sign on the smaller cross street to cross.  Without this courtesy, we would have been waiting quite awhile for a break in the traffic.

Most of these interactions happened at intersections on bikeways.  In Portland, bikeways are regular streets (open to all types of vehicle traffic) that have just a few tweaks to make them better for bicycling – well-placed sharrows, 20MPH speed limits, and minimal stop signs.  Some of the bikeways have low, broad speed bumps, designed to not be a big deal for bikes, while still serving as traffic calming for motor vehicles.

On the other hand . . .
The “bike accommodations” on the bridges were basically extra wide sidewalks.  I felt pretty uncomfortable riding across the Broadway Bridge, with the relatively low height of the railing and my higher center of gravity on the bike.  I wouldn’t have wanted to ride there in heavier bike traffic, because I felt a simple crash could send me plunging into the river far below.

In such a situation, I would have been better off traveling in the normal traffic lanes (especially for the downhill trip), but I’m not sure what reception I would have received from other drivers (both car and bike) for not being where I was “supposed” to be.

On that note, I did hear one person tell us to get on the sidewalk/bike lane as we approached the bridge that first day, right before the unfortunate chain incident, so even Portland has its ignorant and discourteous types.

I also saw plenty of bicyclists who could use a good cycling education course, though I have to admit that figuring out the various types of bike facilities at the same time I was navigating a new city made my own actions a bit less predictable than ideal.

We preferred the routes with “regular” streets or the bikeways to roads with bike lanes.  When we found ourselves on the bike lane roads, we usually opted out of using them, or rode in them with EXTREME caution, mindful of the dangers of being in a less visible position.

All in all, it was a good experience.  Navigating a new city by any mode can be a bit intimidating, but I’d rather figure things out on a bike (or on foot) than in a car any day of the week.  Gabriel did much better in the trailer than I expected, and we all enjoyed experiencing Portland by it’s most heralded (if still a minority) form of transportation.

Shoulda biked . . . and then we did

A couple weeks ago, with Gabriel at his Baba’s for an overnight, we headed to the Botanical Garden for an impromptu date night.

We debated biking, but it was hot, and our new place is significantly farther from the gardens.  Not unbikeable by any means, but enough to make the car somewhat attractive, especially when time is at a premium.

We failed to factor the crowd and parking into our transportation decision.  We had to park in one of the overflow lots and walk.  I didn’t mind the walk, but it did add to the trip time, probably making the bike a more competitive option, as we would have had premium, up-front parking.

We enjoyed the show by night and looked forward to bringing Gabriel back to see the brightly colored art work by day.  With the show winding down (it ends this weekend), and some cooler weather, we managed a quick visit this week, biking not optional.

Over the weekend, we worked up to some fairly long rides, and I’m still loving the front seat.

For our trip to the Botanical Garden, I used bungee cords to secure the umbrella stroller to the milk crate on the back of my bike.  Wheels for getting to the garden and wheels for getting around in the garden — it worked quite well.