SQL double entendre, Betty Foy Rivendell Mixte, and it's San Andreas' Fault

8/31/2013 43m

Today's ride was brought to me by the remarkable regional bike map makers of KrebsCycleProducts.com. Three words: awesome. thank you. The map I bought from a LBS shows good bike roads, trails, classification of steep hills, and all sorts of local info embedded in the map. Really sweet.

This was my second day with the Rivendell Betty Foy mixte and I really like this bike. Primarily, I love the mount/dismount of the mixte. The frame geometry is excellent, very comfortable. I love the handlebars which are much bigger than what I have on my bike (these are just a teeny bit bigger than my shoulders) and they really open up the chest and it's a great ride. There's more in the details of what I like about the Betty Foy, but more on that later.

The first leg was Redwood City via SQL to SFO. SQL is the three-letter airport identifier for the Santa Clara Airport, and of course it's also a geek code acronym for Structured Query Language so in this part of the world that's like hipster-ironic.

You might think, Nah that's not ironic. But today when the bike trail wound through the Oracle campus, I saw that the signs warning you of an approaching pedestrian crosswalk looked like this - so I'm thinking, woah, SQL.(airport/acronym) = geek double entendre.

This leg of the ride was along the west shore of San Francisco Bay. A lot of bike trails, some road riding, with the wind definitively out of the north.

 

This is the obligatory multi-modal retired-air-traffic-controller photo of SQL Tower.

 

Conditions on this ride were warm and the environment was marine-estuary-littoral. Boats and marinas (and airplanes) and really nice parks interrupted by really pragmatic warehouses and the standard waterfront buildings, including the local women's prison which I kind of got lost at and that was a funny place to be asking directions dressed like a cyclist.

 

This was a bike trail bridge that I passed later on, I haven't seen one of these before:

Ended up across a marsh from the San Francisco Airport, where it seems like they're building a new ATC Tower, pretty close to the existing one. (If you're keeping score, this is my second bike-tower pic of the day).

Stopped and took a brief bike-nap while 747s and such were landing. That was pretty cool. #BikeNap

Decided to take a different way back. What I meant to do was to go inland, climb to the top of the ridgeline, and then ride on Canada Road (which had been recommended to me, and they pronounce it Can-yada here).

They have hills here. When they name streets "Hillcrest", they know what they're doing. That was an arduous climb, and I really missed my 20-tooth granny on my LHT's triple-chainring (the Betty Foy I'm riding has a double chainring). This is how steep it was: the front wheel came off the road three times. I wanted to cry but it was so pretty I just couldn't.

So I climbed up to the top of the ridgeline, and after doing my beached-whale imitation and gasping for breath I started riding on a trail that parallels the ridge. The trail runs along San Andreas Lake, and there's a marker identifying the San Andreas Fault that's underneath. They calculate that during the great SF earthquake, the position of the fault moved 9 feet west relative to the rest of the planet.

The ride up on top of the ridge was in a completely different environment from the ride down at the bay. A local rider told me that San Franciscans consider that they live in "microclimates" and that there are, for instance, huge temperature variations from one side of town to the other, or from the ocean side to the bay side. This place was deep blue water (looked cold), big dark green trees, and very rugged hills. No airplanes, cars, or anything with an engine in sight.

Although I planned to ride along the ridgeline for quite a while, a bridge was out. The puboished detour was to ride down to pretty much the bottom, ride south, and then ride back up to the top. Once I pointed the bike downhill there was no way I was going to ride back up that hill; I'm saving that treat for another day.

Finally, on the way home through the business districts of several towns I stopped at Nikkos Mexican Grill, which was excellent.

I've long held that "any day you can see the water is a good day", and today I got to see the SF Bay, the San Andreas Lake, and also the Crystal Springs Reservoir. I got to see two Towers and also a new one in the making, and I got to eat really good food on a bright sunny day. #LivingTheDream.

Rivendell's Betty Foy Mixte (aka Yves Gomez) If you can't be with the bike you ride, ride the one you're with

8/30/2013 22m

I've been off the bike for eight days because I've been traveling, but today I was treated to the loan of a Rivendell Betty Foy bicycle, which is of the mixte design family.

I got to visit the Rivendell facility in Walnut Creek, CA. It's a very cool place and the people there are very impressive: bright, focused, but not intent on selling the bike. If you want one they'll sell it to you, but they're not salesfolks on commission. Very cool vibe.

The Rivendell bike-fit philosophy is driven by a measurement called the PBH (pubic bone height). They have a really high-tech platform that you stand on for optimal alignment, and then they measure your PBH:

This is such a nice looking bike, which is true of all the Rivendells. The great attraction of the mixte for me is that as I get even older (I do qualify for a lot of restaurant discounts as it it) I suspect it's going to become less fun to hitch a leg over the seat, rear rack, and trunk bag. I think a mixte might be the way to go.

The mixte isn't quite as easy-access as the classic step-through but the mixte does seem to bring a stronger geometry to the table. Anyway, this is the bike I road today, in front of Palo Alto High School:

I rode it 22 miles, from Redwood City to the former NAS Moffett (KNUQ). This is a really nice riding bicycle. I'm enjoying the wider (comfy) tires (which is consistent with the Rivendell philosophy) and I'm really enjoying the big handlebars.

It was really nice to ride again after eight days without.

Pittsburgh: Pass (Bike/People) With Care Campaign

8/28/2013

New billboard in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood, at Doughboy Square:

This is truly awesome. Pittsburgh has had a growth spurt of bicycling and growth pains in the driver-cyclist relationship which have, at their most severe, manifested themselves in fatalities and hit-and-runs. Fugly.

The key to Pittsburgh's consciousness is black-and-gold, one side says Steelers, one side says Pirates, and somehow the other side says Penguins. A billboard with Steeler Antonio Brown, who is a real-life bike commuter, is going to go a huge way in breaking the ice. What driver wants to be the guy who hurts the Steelers' chances?

Other images are also going up in this campaign. This are several bus stop signs:

I know that the priest is Father Doug Boyd, from St. Maria Goretti parish in Bloomfield/Garfield. So these are real Pittsburgh cyclists, not stock-image dropins.

This is really awesome.

SWAT Boat Training and Klavon's Privacy Booths

8/20/2013 15m

Started at the Millvale trailhead. Armed with four cans of road-marking chalk-based paint, which should wash away after about a month (I'm told), we set out to complete our recon of the North Side segments of this upcoming weekend's Pedal Pittsburgh.

Passing around the "NorthShore" we saw one of the local tourist boats up against the shore, which is not unusual but the police utility boats on either side were. Then we saw officers with weapons going up the ladders and practicing clearing the passageways and we realized it was a training day. It seemed like a great scenario (especially given the day's news from Decatur, GA).

We had stopped our review of the course the other day because the rain had made the street wet enough that the paint wasn't working, and so we started on Brighton Road. The places we'd painted before the rain started were still well marked, and the places we'd painted in light rain with good drainage were pretty well marked, but the places that had a bit more water on them really didn't keep their paint on, so we did a bit of re-painting and resumed the course.

We completed the North Side segments at the 16th Street Bridge and started to ride out to Lawrenceville. Stopped at Klavons to see how the new proprietors are doing and the answer is: they're doing real well. We had an egg cream and ice cream at the counter.

Saw an interesting retro-tech generational tableau; there was a family (grandpa, mother, three young girls). The girls were fascinated by these big boxes that Grandpa explained were "phone booths". They were so excited to get into the booths, close the door, observe how the lights come on and off (how does it know?). The girls had the grownups taking pictures of them in the phonebooths for Facebook so they could show their friends. The grownups, of course, were taking pictures using: their phones.

It struck me later that something those girls may have found novel about the phone booths was the provision of privacy, the notion that you could have a moment in a public space where you could speak without being overheard. (Thanks, Obama!)

Headed east, saw this fence at Charlotte St. and 35th Street:

This mural was co-located:

Rode out to BikePgh's new offices (very very nice space) to return the remaining can of paint and report on the hazards we'd seen. Back to Millvale and called it a ride at 15 miles.

Experienced the joy that is Route 28 at 6pm, can't believe people do this routinely.

Ride Recon Yields Toynbee Tile

8/18/2013 37m

Had a new sort of riding experience today, got to assist S. in a recon ride of part of the course for the upcoming Pedal Pittsburgh ride. We rode from the starting point through the North Side, checking the course sheet and marking divots and potholes in the street, like this:

I think I pay attention to the road surface when I ride, but when you're riding to check the road surface you do see a lot more. Today's payoff was spotting a Toynbee Tile in the intersection of Smithfield Street and Forbes Avenue, wow wow wow.

This is a 2007 picture of the same tile.

I had known that there was such a thing in Pittsburgh but had never seen it or known of the location. According to the Post-Gazette, there are tiles at these locations:

• Smithfield at Forbes (shown)
  
• Smithfield at Oliver
  
• Forbes near Ross
  
• Liberty Avenue across from the Hilton (since paved over)
  
• Seventh Avenue at Smithfield Street (since paved over)
  

The recon ride was interesting. It was fun to be given cans of spray-paint and permission to mark up the streets.

We knocked off after five hours because we were about out of paint and the precip was beginning to shift from pleasant drizzle to actual rain. I think the Pedal Pittsburgh course through the North Hills will be rather challenging, quite a bit of climbing.

Utility Cycling for 15, Please

8/17/2013 #240 15m

Tremendous weather. Just a short (excellent) ride, back and forth for some shopping. Saw a few friends doing the BikeFest 12 Bridges ride.

Idaho Imports, Murals, Chateau Cafe, Creped Crusader, Sunset Flock

8/17/2013 54m 239#

Started off early with an opportunity to escort two visiting cyclists onto the GAP Trail to kickoff their Pittsburgh to DC ride. Mark and Betty flew into Pittsburgh from Idaho, just because of the bike trail.

Let's identify some economic impact. Flew into the airport, took a cab, dinner at a restaurant, night in a hotel. Two rental bikes from a Pittsburgh provider. Not bad. It was a treat to ride out to Boston PA with them and get to point out the sights. They were very impressed at Pittsburgh and the trail environment.

Later I met S at the Bastille, and we rode to see a new mural (still in progress) at Bicycle Heaven:

Then we navigated over to the brand-new Chateau Cafe and Cakery at 1501 Preble Avenue. Very nice coffee shop, I had a cupcake and a double-espresso and they were excellent. Nice bike trail coffee shop.

We rode around Brighton Street and checked out the progress on the Trayvon Martin - Jordan Miles mural, still being developed.

Rode to Oakland, saw Squonk Opera preparing for a performance on Schenley Quad. Noticed that The Creped Crusader had set up shop at the Oakland Farmer's Market, had to order a crepe and it was just nom nom nom good. Follow them at @Creped_Crusader to see where they may next arise. Key tagline: Not the crepes this city deserves, but the crepes this city needs right now. (Post-Gazette article)

Joined the Flock of Cycles ride shaping up at Dippy. This month's ride is the BikeFest edition of Flock. It was a great ride, excellent tunes on both of the playlists we heard. Key "Seen" moment was when the ride crossed in front of Ambassador Rick Seyback while his car was at a stop sign. We ended entering Point State Park after sunset.