KC Bike Commuting

It's Limited Warren T!

2013-05-13T08:51:00.003-05:00

Always good to see Warren out and about.

Bike week has begun!

2013-05-11T21:12:00.001-05:00

As usual, I plan to hit several Overland Park sponsored events.

Let's meet up at some of these! It looks like the old Deanna Rose stop got axed, but in its place is Quivira Park. I will be there Monday! Tuesday's event is a no-brainer. It's half a mile from my office. And, of course, I can't miss Friday's event at City Hall. Aside from Tuesday (I'll probably get there around 8:15 since it's so close to work) I plan on 7:00, 7:15 or so for the others.

The days are getting longer...

2013-05-11T09:27:00.003-05:00

But there's more night riding in my future! Enter: Dynohub. An awesome early b-day present from The commuterDude himself!

Also, I went to the hospital this week with an episode of Atrial Fibrillation. I'm okay now, but my heart was in an irregular rhythm for about 10 hours. A little bit of a scare. After having a bunch of tests run by my new Cardiologist and Pulmonologist, they agree that sleep apnea probably caused it. I've got a sleep study coming up, but both of them say that the best thing I can do is keep on riding, so here's to more Dark Side Rides!

Second bike commute of 2013

2013-04-09T19:27:00.001-05:00

March 2013 DSR

2013-03-30T11:11:00.000-05:00

Tired of dealing with aging and/or unreliable lighting, I picked this up yesterday. a Dark Side Ride provided the final nudge to pick up something relatively inexpensive in the "to see with" category. The optics leave something to be desired, but it's bright enough for my riding style. 120 lumens, but it does okay with them. The Flare 3 tail light is superior to my SuperFlash, but not by much. It offers much better side lighting.

The route. I wasn't keeping track. I don't think it was quite 20 miles by the time I count the 3 miles getting to and from the start. Jason and Al were also in the mix.

Quick blurry shot of the Twelve. It was a beautiful night for a ride. For those keeping count, this is my second ride the bike in 2013, if you don't count little errands within a few miles of home. I'm slacking.

First bike commute of 2013.

2013-02-06T19:15:00.001-06:00

It took me long enough to get around to it. The route shown last night was the plan. The reality is that I missed a turn somewhere on the way to the office and my wayfinding intuition took over. Some parts of the planned route didn't make any sense at all once I got there (like the jog onto the bike path at 123rd before Foster) and were similarly replaced ad-hoc.

There seem to be no better ways to cross 435 than taking sections of 103rd and Antioch in rush hour traffic without adding significant time and mileage to the ride. That little stretch is the worst of it. The rest of the route is quite pleasant.

Total mileage for the round trip: just under 20. Not a bad day on the bike, but my lack of conditioning was apparent.

Here's the "cue sheet" from my route starting at about 87th and Quivira, with notes:

Turn right onto Quivira Rd
Turn left onto W 91st St
Turn right onto Reeder Dr
Turn left onto W 92nd St
Turn right onto Switzer Rd
Turn left onto Taylor Dr 103rd - I totally missed it this morning. It cost me some time and finding my way out of cul-de-sac hell.
Continue onto Perry Ln
Turn left onto Wedd St
Turn left onto Connell Dr
Turn left onto W 99th Terrace
Turn right onto Grandview Dr
Turn left onto W 103rd St -- Lots of impatient people heading to highway on-ramps.
Turn right onto Antioch Rd -- Lots of impatient people heading to highway on-ramps.
Turn left onto W 108th Terrace
Slight right onto Lowell Ave/Lowell St
Turn right onto W 115th St -- JC nichols subdivisions are all mazes.
Turn left onto Lowell Ave -- JC nichols subdivisions are all mazes.
Slight right toward Lowell Ave -- JC nichols subdivisions are all mazes.
Turn left toward Lowell Ave -- JC nichols subdivisions are all mazes.
Turn right onto Lowell Ave -- JC nichols subdivisions are all F***ING MAZES!
Turn left onto W 123rd St
Turn right onto Foster
Turn left onto W 132nd St
Arrive at Metcalf and 132nd St.

All in all, not a bad route. The homeward route was exactly according to plan, but in reverse.

New job. New route.

2013-02-05T22:43:00.001-06:00

I have been more than a bit mum lately. I accepted a new job at the beginning of the year. My old team was awesome, and I keep in touch. My new job is where my passion really is, though: Information security research. While I feel like my old route was as bike-friendly as it could get out here in suburbia, by comparison my new route is a bit more daunting. You can clearly see how my bailiwick is sectioned into islands by highways, where crossings are few, far-between and often part of high-traffic interchanges riddled with frenetic and distracted motorists. The beta test of this route starts tomorrow!

Late

2012-08-30T20:25:00.001-05:00

Pretty much the only thing I like about days where I end up at work later than usual: No traffic.

Hi!

2012-08-28T08:29:00.004-05:00

Dear friendly driver on Santa Fe Trail Drive,

I saw you wave. I probably know you but just don't recognize you without your bike and helmet. Hi back at ya.

Dark Side Ride: Once in a blue moon

2012-08-24T09:16:00.002-05:00

Although "Blue Moon" has several definitions, the one that seems most popular is the coming of a second full moon within the same calendar month. Since we had a full moon on August 2nd, we're going to get in by the skin of our teeth on August 31st. The last time we had this kind of Blue Moon was in December of 2009.

With that, we're celebrating with yet another edition of the Dark Side Ride.

Where: Meet at the Wendy's parking lot just north of K-10 and Woodland Rd in Lenexa.
When: Friday, August 31, 2012. We roll out at 9:00 PM sharp. Be there early enough to roll at 9.
Route: It'll be a surprise! Expect 20-30 miles.

A few things to note:

Usually, our DSR includes a stop by a convenience store for the emptying of bladders as well as the purchasing and consumption of beverages and snacks. I have a feeling this route will not include such accommodations.
We ask everyone to use helmets, reflective/hi-vis gear and to bring along lighting that's good for up to 3.5 hours of darkness.
I have a feeling that Blue Moon might be available after the ride. It would only be appropriate.

Maiden Voyage

2012-08-21T22:35:00.000-05:00

Round trip: about 6 miles.
Average speed: Slow, but mostly on purpose. I really should throw a cyclometer on Frank.
Fun level: OFF THE CHART.
Lessons learned: That flimsy aluminum U-Channel bracket on my rear drop-out really needs to be replaced with steel U-Channel. Other than that, everything looks good.

Load included a 35 pound pail of cat litter, fresh veggies, a box of cookies, salad dressing and some other stuff.

I actually like my bikes, thanks.

2012-08-20T11:42:00.000-05:00

In the past 3 days:

After the monthly KCPUG meeting half a mile from home: "Are you riding because your car is broken? I can give you a ride, man."

(in response to the trailer): "... or you could just drive your car."

Is there some new wave of anti-bicycling advertisement I'm missing? In other news, my wife thinks my bike trailer looks like something a homeless bum would use. I think the blue bucket of doom just needs a camouflage paint job and/or a few (dozen) bumper stickers on it so it more closely resembles something designed for the zombie apocalypse.

Speaking of Zombie Apocalypse, I spotted this last week. It turns out I know the owner.

Franken-Trailer

2012-08-19T23:41:00.000-05:00

Raw materials:
I had these two specific un-used items in my hoarder stash that I knew would go into this project. The wheelchair was very used when I got it (for next to nothing) on craigslist years ago. The hard rubber tires are yellowed and weathered, but the frame was sturdy and the bearings are in good shape. Weighs about 30 pounds. Rated for 300 pounds. I also had a Coleman brand captain's chair with a ripped back. It served us well on a decade of camping and fishing trips. I had originally planned on trying to fix it, but we have enough of these already.

When I started, I didn't have a plan. The wheelchair was a pain to take all the way apart. I left the wheels attached to each side of the frame, but I took the seat back and cushion off, leaving the two halves connected by two bars forming an "X" between them. I got those apart and was left with a whole mess of parts.

It was clear that the two "X" pieces would be used to brace the frame, but in a different configuration. Out comes the cut-off wheel on the Dremel. You can see the cuts I made. I placed the un-altered cross-member in frame for comparison. The piece can swivel by a somewhat tight-fitting piece of tube that fit the inside diameter of the frame and cross-member. Pulling it out was a genuine pain in the butt.

The other cross-member got chopped up even worse. I cut each end's tubular frame piece in half. This was so I could drill through the frame near the handles, and attach bolts through it to give the frame extra stiffness.

It was about this time that I decided to turn the trailer into a "bucket hauler" so the next part was to build a platform for said bucket. This is where the captain's chair came in. I turned a few screws counter-clockwise, drilled out a dozen or so rivets, and had broken the chair down into a neat stack of useful steel tubes and a pile of canvas, plastic feet and busted rivets. I had to chop the tubing to length, so again out came the dremel. I drove six screws through the bottom of the blue tub and into these horizontal tubes.

I held everything together with machine screws and nuts I had laying around, but I ran out of hardware here. I needed to pick up more of the same, but I also had to whip up a hitch for the bike, too. I spent a few bucks on screws, nuts and a clevis pin. I used a piece of the chair tubing with a bend in it to get the tow bar away from the bike, otherwise right turns would be almost impossible.

To allow the bike to lean while turning, I attached the trailer to the bike with two thicknesses of tubing, and cut a pair of slots in the outer one so that the screw driven between them can swivel.

Here it is hooked up to Frank. One of the front wheels is missing on the original wheelchair because it was getting in the way of the tow bar.

Unhooked, the tow bar doesn't touch the ground. Not that it matters too much. With one front wheel, it probably won't stay upright with a load in the bucket.

It pulls like a dream, but I haven't taken it on a grocery run yet.

Weekend project

2012-08-19T10:44:00.000-05:00

I decided I really need a trailer, but I don't have any money. I sacrificed an old wheelchair for the frame and wheels, and a broken canvas captain's chair for its tubing to build extra support and the hitch. I'm ankle deep in metal shavings, broken dremel cutoff wheels, and drilled-out rivets.

The hitch arm will angle inward more than this, but you get the general idea.

More build photos to come.

Behaving Badly.

2012-08-07T16:17:00.000-05:00

This badly behaving cyclist should be arrested for road rage. Yep.

The comments are worth it.

Tip o'th' hat to Fritz.

The story hits me as mostly a work of fiction, inspired by a few real-life events and an imagination run wild. At least that's what I hope it is.

No Excuses.

2012-08-06T20:16:00.002-05:00

No excuses.

I finally got to bed at about 1:30 this morning, when CNN stopped talking about science and began their incessant droning on politics and hot button issues. I wasn't going to use Curiosity as an excuse to not ride. First morning of low-70's? Couldn't resist!

Clever decorations...

2012-07-28T19:22:00.002-05:00

I'm not entirely certain what took my wife and I so long to make a visit to one of the area's SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza restaurants. I've always noticed that their restaurants are loaded with ample bicycle rack space, and my local bikey friends tend to frequent it a lot. I should have guessed that there was some kind of bicycle culture in the shops' DNA given the name. I did not expect to see gear clusters hanging from the ceiling, though. Also: darn fine pizza, salad and gelato!

Fixing Frank. MOAR HACKS.

2012-07-27T18:54:00.000-05:00

My boss gave me an early start to the weekend, so I rode to the library to return a book on Tarantulas I had borrowed, and I sat in the shade and enjoyed the lunch I thought I was going to be eating at work.

What was I doing with a book about taratulas? Oh, right. Meet dd. You knew I had a thing for spiders, right?

Anyhow, when I got home, I figured it was really time to dig into Frank's rack and get to the bottom of why it fell apart. I'd only barely put the rack back together when it happened. I was meeting some of my fellow nerds at a (very) nearby coffee shop. I knew that one of the assemblies holding the seat stay braces had come apart, and on the other side, the bolt holding the seat stay brace to the seat stay came out. I knew I was missing some hardware, forever lost in the middle of the road somewhere, perhaps many miles ago.

Here, you can see what the seat stay brace attachment is supposed to look like. Two pieces of u-channel aluminum sandwiching two roundish pieces of tube type material around the seat stay brace. It's missing from the other side because those pieces fell off when the rack fell.

I apparently missed one of the half-tube-like pieces when I scurried around the road looking for bits of hardware.

I looked around for anything that could be used to replace the missing piece, and finally settled on an outer plate from a piece of old chain.

It wouldn't quite fit, so I had to bend the plate a little. Pliers were getting me nowhere, so I tried the chain cutter. Success.

The finished bracket:

After finding a few more allen-head screws in my bucket of bike stuff and putting everything back together tightly, it seems to work great. Time will tell, I suppose.

The SuperFlash was just a little scuffed up. The mounting bracket is fine and the light itself still works and snaps securely into the bracket. Good news all the way around.

Three before dawn

2012-07-27T09:21:00.001-05:00

It was another dark-and-early morning for me, and I left in a bit of a haze. The short story is that I saw three other cyclists on Santa Fe Trail drive this morning, all which which looked like commuters in some way or another. The long story is... Oh heck, It's been forever since I put anything up here, hasn't it? I probably need to provide some back-story.

This kind of started with the Lenexa Midnight Bike Ride two weeks ago. I was once again called on for communications support on the hiking trail section of the event. I opted to take Frank this time, loaded him down with my Motorola GM300 radio. When I have panniers on the mountain bike, the Superflash does its best on the back of the rack.

Why am I telling you this? Because, all told, there was probably 30 pounds of crap on Frank's rack that night. Well, and I like to show off my nerdy bikeness. So what, though? 30 pounds seems like a lot, but I've loaded more than that before. I'm pretty sure that all that weight caused some screws to loosen up on the rack, though. I had a bit of an incident with the Rack last Satuday, where it became detached from my seat stays, pivoted on the remaining bolts near the rear drop outs, then dragged on the ground behind my bike, snapping my SuperFlash clean off the bike. I got off my bike and rescued the light. I think the light itself is okay, but the mounting bracket might be hosed. I lost the batteries from the light, and didn't bother scouring the roadway for them.

Oh, and I also depleted both my Blackburn Flea and my NiteRider Evolution headlight batteries on the Midnight Ride.

Now I can get on with my story this morning. So it's a bit past five in the morning and I have about half an hour to get to the office. This is when it strikes me that my helmet is drying on a clothes rack in my home office (I'd washed it in the shower a few days before) and that all of my usual lights are out of order or depleted.

I always have my 2xAA Mini Maglite with me, whether it's in my pockets, my panniers or my backpack, and I always keep the piece of cut-up inner tube in the bike's under-seat pouch that lets me rock the flashlight as a headlight in a pinch by strapping it to my handlebars.

So I used that silly trick again this morning. In my box of random bike crap (stored alongside the bikes in the garage) I found my old, hacked-up Blackburn Mars 3.0 tail light. I decided to tempt fate this morning without the helmet. I was running late. I finished off by tossing on the Vest Of Retina Destruction. Side note: one of the three other cyclists I saw this morning was wearing the exact same vest.

And for all the hackery I've done to make sure I had at least some kind of lighting, the fact that I ran across so many other people on bikes before the sun was up this morning was really the only remarkable thing.

Suburban camping

2012-06-10T19:34:00.000-05:00

My schedule and family life have been crazy lately, but I needed to get out and spend a night under the stars. The mission was to find some wooded area right here in the suburbs, not marked with "no trespassing" or other such verbiage. Since I was staying close and I knew I'd be off-roading, I opted to load up Frank for this trip. I didn't take many pictures, mostly because I really felt like shutting down all the parts of my brain that had anything to do with electronics.

I started with some fishing on the way out at a spot close to home. I caught bluegill by the dozen, and brought in the biggest red-eared slider I've ever seen (not even close to the size of a snapper, but big for a slider). I threw them all back in.

Then, I was off to find that perfect spot. I've been doing a lot of Google Maps Recon and I had a bunch of ideas for places to go. This seemed like a good place to set up camp for the night, despite being able to hear a deck party going on at a nearby $800,000 home.

Even before the sun was all the way down, it was getting pretty dark in the area I'd chosen. I only had one bottle of water with me, and I'd powered through most of it already. I went to a nearby stream with my water filter, got enough water for the rest of the trip, heated up dinner then called it a night.

It was a really short trip. I don't know if I'll use the same spot ever again but there are many others nearby to try. I needed it, though.

Response from Mike Boehm, Mayor of Lenexa

2012-05-30T21:56:00.001-05:00

Mike was quick to respond to my inquiry, but I must say that several experienced cyclists do share Mike's opinion of Santa Fe Trail Drive and prefer to use other roads. I can only hope that making bicycling more visible in a positive way gets more people out on their bikes.

Thank you, Mike, for taking the time to respond. Our city isn't earning high marks from the sustainable transportation advocates, but it remains a pleasure to live, work, play and bike here, thanks also in part to local businesses who remain friendly to bicyclists as both patrons and employees, such as Hen House.

Noah,

Thanks for writing. I was pleased to see you referenced in the article and read your positive comments. Knowing there was significant truck and car traffic along that route and given the narrow nature of the roadway, without curb/gutter/shoulder treatments, my general feeling was that it would not necessarily be the best option for riders. Your experiences obviously prove that my concerns are unfounded.

Again, thanks for writing

Mike

Open Letter to the City of Lenexa

2012-05-30T10:36:00.002-05:00

In this article, Mike Hendricks apparently quotes you saying that it is unwise to bicycle on Santa Fe Trail Drive.

I live in the apartment complex behind City Hall, and work on the southern reaches of town along Renner south of College Blvd. I'd be interested to know what route you would propose for getting to and from work. 87th St Pkwy and Renner are both high-speed thoroughfares without wide outer lanes or any other amenities that would make me feel safe using them during rush hour.

I might add that I got this job two years ago, and have found nearly all of the motorists to be courteous along this route. I also encounter many other cyclists on that stretch of road. Truck and bus drivers often log thousands of miles per week, and I have found that they are among the most experienced, careful and attentive users of the road because driving is their livelihood. I see little reason to be afraid of bicycling through the more industrial parts of town.

This was emailed to Lenexa Mayor, Mike Boehm. If I get any response, I'll share it. Mostly, I was taken by surprise at the mayor's comment about Santa Fe Trail Drive. Certainly, he doesn't intend for cyclists to use the city's high-speed, densely used miniature highways during rush hour.

KC Star on the state of Bicycling in Johnson County

2012-05-30T09:12:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, Mike Hendricks of the KC Star interviewed me. In the middle of Bike Week, Keith from the KC Star photographed me (and I photographed him). I didn't know exactly where the article was going, but I gave my all to paint a positive picture of my route. After all, this is the best bicycle commuting route I've ever had, even though it's littered with diagonal rail road crossings.

Enjoy: Happy Trails to you, cyclists

KC Star did caption the below photo to indicate that I had made a hand signal to indicate my intent of taking the lane before cutting across the diagonal rail road tracks. I had also made eye contact with the Dodge driver behind me, and he'd slowed down to let me proceed. This plays out several times per day on my usual commute. Motorists along Santa Fe Trail Drive are usually pretty easy to get along with.

Photo of me from linked article. Copyright KC Star/Joco913

Freedom isn't free.

2012-05-28T11:32:00.001-05:00

Freedom isn't free., originally uploaded by KC-Bike.

To all those who have served, and especially to all who made the ultimate sacrifice: Thank you.

Rager.

2012-05-24T13:06:00.001-05:00

Rager., originally uploaded by KC-Bike.

Links for 2012-01-19 [del.icio.us]

2012-01-20T00:00:00-08:00

Full employment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Links for 2012-01-18 [del.icio.us]

2012-01-19T00:00:00-08:00

Principles of Macroeconomics - N. Gregory Mankiw - Google Books
Macroeconomics: Unemployment
Overview of the types and causes of, unemployment.

Links for 2008-10-27 [del.icio.us]

2008-10-28T00:00:00-07:00

Do-it-Yourself LED bicycle lighting
Information on bicycle lighting with LEDs.

Links for 2008-09-20 [del.icio.us]

2008-09-21T00:00:00-07:00

MAKE: Blog: Sad news.. Mark Hoekstra of Geektechniques has passed away
Mark was a fellow cyclist and geek who would often come up with all kinds of nerdy projects that I loved to read... many of which involved bicycles. He died at age 34 of a massive heart attack... while *gulp* riding his bicycle...

Links for 2008-09-19 [del.icio.us]

2008-09-20T00:00:00-07:00

Greater KC Bus service updates
With the exception of rising fares, this is good news for users of transit

Links for 2008-09-14 [del.icio.us]

2008-09-15T00:00:00-07:00

Hackszine.com: Removing tourists from your travel photos
Simple way to create an apparently un-obstructed composite image of something with multiple photographs. Quite Clever.

Links for 2008-07-15 [del.icio.us]

2008-07-16T00:00:00-07:00

MAKE: Blog: DIY: Simple Tandem Bike
Do want! This is a cool way to turn two bikes into one tandem -- apparently without welding or ruining either of the two bikes.