On Bicycles, and.... what else is there?

Fulfilling a long-term promise, the Garmin Vector now does pedalstroke analysis! See DC Rainmaker's excellent blog post on the latest firmware update. The new metrics include: pedal force offset: this measures how far outboard or inboard the average force is applied. pedal power stroke: this measures over which angles peak propulsive force is applied seated versus standing time: if you're standing, the pedals support full body weight (non-propulsive), so the Vector can determine how much time you're standing versus sitting (and record whether you're standing or sitting). Various applications for these metrics would be bike fit, technique analysis, and interpretation of performance. For the pedal force offset, that obviously suggests a bike fit application. "Power stroke" suggests both fit and technique. Standing versus seating suggests performance analysis: am I faster seated or standing on short steep climbs? What about long sustained climbs? More d...

Caley Fretz is one of my favorite cycling reviewers. He now works for VeloNews, where he wrote this review on the new Enve SES bar : The shape of the SES is a reflection of the way that positioning has changed in recent years — as bars have dropped relative to the saddle, and our understanding of aerodynamics has improved, it has become clear that the lowest drag is often found with hands on the hoods, elbows bent at 90 degrees, chin to the stem. The SES design allows for a narrow, aerodynamic hood position — 37cm on my test bar — while retaining a wider drop area, 42cm. Narrow when you want it, wide when you need it. Here's the Enve: I love new ideas! In completely separate news, VeloPress has recently published Goggles and Dust , a book based on the remarkable photos which are part of the Horton Collection:

Back in the day, back in the early days of recorded time (i.e. since I got a Garmin 500 and signed up for Strava), we used to ride an SF2G Skyline route which didn't descend Crystal Springs to Polhemus bus instead remained on Skyline Boulevard, crossed a bridge at the dam under the 280 Flyover, and then climbed back to Highway 92.   The memories of that nearly forgotten time must be reconstructed from the yellowing pages of the Strava archives lest they be forgotten forever. Note the rather direct route near Crystal Springs. Now compare and contrast: You can see the difference near the "Belmont" label: a left, right, right, left while the earlier route takes a relatively straight line. The alternate route involves a descent of Crystal Springs Road, a right turn onto Polhemus, a long climb there to where it turns into Ralston past the Highway 92 interchange, then passing through a parking lot to descend back to Cañada Road via a twisting bike-pedestrian path whic...

Thanksgiving marked the ninth and final climb in the 2014 Low-Key Hillclimbs. And as it has been every year we've done the series, Thanksgiving marked the longest "single" climb we do, Mount Hamilton Road. Single climb is in quotes because John Summerson has asserted that Hamilton isn't a single climb, but rather three. And indeed the descents are considerable. But with a net elevation difference of 1161 meters and total climbing of 1340 meters, that's an "altitude efficiency" of 86.6%, so it is considerably more up than down. A series of three equal climbs separated by two descents to the original elevation would be an efficiency of only 33.3%. I began my day in San Jose, having stayed with a friend, and a weather check showed the temperature in the city was 44F but at the summit, at 7 am or so, it was already 62F. So it was unusually warm, a common trend this year. Despite this I wore a wool baselayer in addition to knee warmers, shorts, and a s...

This blog has been neglected due to other activities, in particular the final weeks of the 2014 Low-Key Hillclimbs, but additionally due to a transition in my work life. I've been at my present job starting October 2010 through today, but that will be changing the beginning of 2015. This period roughly coincides with my time on Strave. For aggregated those data, VeloViewer is a great tool. They just implemented an annual ￡10 fee to access full data, and it's paid off in this one plot. 2014 started off very mediocrely. I focused on trail running until April, and that hurt my total mileage, but it ended with a very successful debut at the 50 km distance, the Woodside Ramble. Then there was a downtime associated with preparing for and actually moving to a new place in San Francisco. Starting in September, however, I recovered, with 4 very solid weeks end-of-September-to-start-of-October in Switzerland. After that I did fairly well, participating in Low-Key Hillclimbs, an...

Love-hate: my relationship with a mountain bike and Low-Key Hillclimbs. Low-Key Hillclimbs is a series of 9 climbs each year, on Saturdays from the beginning of October through Thanksgiving, with the final of the 9 on Thanksgiving itself. When we started the series, part of my vision was that we'd use it as a showcase for the variety of climbs in the Bay Area. Back then, in the mid-1990's, racers typically used a low gear of 39-25 or even 39-23. This tended to make the spicier climbs the Bay Area had on offer a bit more of a painful experience than many would prefer. Thus it was usually same-old-same-old: climb Old La Honda, climb Kings, climb Highway 9, West Alpine, Tunitas. But other truly differentiating options went neglected. So the goal was to broaden people's scope: cover the 2-dimensional space of duration and steepness with a combination of short and long, gradual and steep. In addition to making it more interesting for riders, it would make the competition m...

Low-Key Hillclimbs week 7, San Bruno Mountain East, was a great success. This was the second climb this year for which we applied for, paid for, and received a permit for riding on roads which passed through parks. In this case Radio Road goes from Guadalupe Canyon Parkway (a 4-lane eyesore scarring San Bruno Mountain from the days when the goal was to completely cover the mountain with housing developments, a goal which has at least partially succeeded, but the road is still way overbuilt) up to the radio towers at the top of the mountain. The road is very lightly used, because not only is the park remarkably lightly used (diminished by too much of the mountains taken up by sprawled housing) but the parking is at the bottom of Radio Road. We were bypassing this parking area by going from westbound Guadalupe, through a fire access gate, directly to Radio on the northern side rather than take the route cars would follow, which is to cross Guadalupe, enter Radio on the southern side,...

Well, the voting is done, and the results came out largely the same as I had hoped. In California, 47 passed, as I'd hoped, but so did both 1 and 2. 1 was a water bond, which focused on building dams which don't do anything to either create more water or conserve what we have, the obvious approach the latter in a state which does little to reduce water consumption by either agriculture or individuals. 2 was for a "budget stabilization" account for California. Maybe it will help. 47 helped reduce sentencing on minor theft ( Locally, things also were generally good, except I was disappointed that Proposition E, the "sugary drink tax", got "only" 55% of the vote and for new taxes 2/3 is required. This is a bit silly. Consider the case where I have two measures, one which raises revenue via taxes, the other which spends the same amount. The People, being fiscally responsible, vote for either both or neither. 60% vote yes, 40% no. The result? ...

San Francisco virtually always has a complicated ballot on election day. This year holds its own in that regard, with 12 ballot measures as well as local offices. Here's some of my picks for the Tue election. Here's a guide to San Francisco ballot measures. District 8 Supervisor Scott Weiner's my choice. He's had an excellent record so far, including solid positions on transportation. Proposition A This is a bond to fund transportation costs in San Francisco, including road repair. Well, for one thing we just recently passed a bond to fund road repair. against my support. Funding ongoing repairs with debt is a bad idea because it incurs interest on top of principle costs, and since paving the roads is a steady expense, there's no reason it shouldn't be allocated out of the annual budget. The main reason, though, I'm against this is that Mayor Lee recently ended sunday street parking metering (every other day is metered). This was going to fun...

Election time, so time to make my choices on ballot measures. Proposition 1 The arguments against this bill are compelling. First, a focus on surface water storage via the construction of dams doesn't create any more water: it allows more water to be drained from our otherwise overtaxed rivers. Second, the cost of the bond come from the general fund. Costs of water storage should be paid through water use fees. The real issue is water consumption needs to be reduced, and it's simple economics that be incentivized via increased costs. Subsidizing water use doesn't accomplish this at all. So I am a skeptic about this bond justifying it's in excess of $7 billion cost. California needs to reduce it's excessive rate of water use, and this doesn't address that. No Proposition 2 This is supposed to be a "rainy day fund" for the state. Unfortunately, when there's "rainy day funds" there's the incentive to conclude a lot more days ...

After last week's Powertap snafu where I tried pacing myself off the power meter only to later realize it was substantially over-reporting power, I wasn't feeling super-warm-and-fuzzy today about following the same approach in what was essentially a mandatory new attempt at the Wednesday Noon Ride. Using the calibration cycle on the Garmin Edge 500 had appeared to restore the Powertap to the regime where it was able to stay in tune during coasting phases alone, and the numbers I typically saw in the display were more typical of the pre-Switzerland mediocre Dan than the "suddenly blessed with amazing fitness" Dan the Powertap had been assuring me had replaced it. Chris Evans and Brian Schuster of Squadra SF were at the start, two very solid climbers, especially Chris who'd been putting in an impressive string of mid-16-minute Old La Hondas with his approach of starting each week with a leg-ripping effort which I can only imagine matching for more than a mercifull...

As we descended back to the Peets Coffee which marked the start of the week 4 Low-Key Hillclimb route, Rich Hill said to me: "has Low-Key ever done a day with 4800 feet of climbing before?" I paused. Hamilton? Not quite, only 4400. Diablo? Not close. Portola Valley Hills last year? No -- less than 3000 total feet. What about weeks with optional extra climbs, like the Diabolical Double or the Lomas-Marin Ave combo? No and no. "I don't think so. No -- I'm pretty sure not," I replied. I felt good about this, because after 6 intense efforts up climbs with vertical gain from 476 to 764 vertical feet, I was cooked. Details of the route are here . Paul McKenzie designed a route of absolute brilliance, tying together a combination of classic and obscure climbs in the maze-like Berkeley-Oakland-Hills with a minimum of overhead. Of those 4800 vertical feet, 3825 were against the clock, 975 part of the untimed transitions (still timed, actually, but with ...