Drug race

I remember pretty well the time in my childhood when I used to spend hours in front of TV watching the Peace Race with my dad. The Peace Race was important to us at that time, since it was pretty much the only way to watch some top cyclists from our country competing on TV. 

You must remember that Poland was still ruled by a communist regime in 70's and 80's and it wasn't always possible for cyclists to travel West and take part in e.g. Tour de France. Plus, for some strange reason cyclists from the former Eastern Bloc were not allowed to be professional athletes therefore, the Peace Race was supposed to be a race of cycling amateurs. My dad's hero at that time was Ryszard Szurkowski, a teacher from Poland, who won the Peace Race 4 times between 1970 and 1975. Since I was born a bit later, I remember Uwe Ampler better, another 4-times winner.
 

The amateur aspect of the Peace Race was a pure joke. All those miners, teachers, and other "amateurs" hardly ever worked in their original professions. Instead, they were supported by large tech teams. Thus, they were not different than professional cyclists in the West. And like in the West, their sole existence was focused on winning at all cost. This involved using drugs as well.

Alberto Contador celebrating his victory in 2011 Giro d'Italia (Photo by Giovanni Auletta, AP)

We started this year with news of Alberto Contador suspension regarding his blood doping in 2010 and 2011. Contador lost his 2010 Tour de France and 2011 Giro d'Italia titles. And then, 3 days, later we got the news that Jan Ullrich  was found guilty of doping and banned from competing as well. If you ever wondered how dirty professional road cycling could be, now you have the answer. Ullrich had a bad luck of being always second in Tour de France, as long as Lance Armstrong was racing. Could he be simply tired of looking at Armstrong's rear wheel? I am sure he wanted to win too. And how about Armstrong? Looking at what happened during the last few days it is hard to believe that Lance was always clean. It is possible that he was just smarter, luckier and had more money for better drugs than the rest of professional cyclists.
 

Amazingly, many pro cyclists believe that they are fair with their rivals, since if everybody is cheating chances of victory are equal for everyone. But what about us, viewers? Do we want to watch a bicycle race or a drug race? Is this still sport or some medical experiment?

It looks like for now, in order to enjoy cycling in its purest form we should dig out those archive tapes from the beginning of XX century.

Copenhagenize Index

I keep noticing some improvements in bicycle infrastructure around Boston. There are more bike lanes showing up, like the newly constructed lane along Concord Ave in Belmont and also more bike racks, so we are finally not limited to locking our bikes to lamp posts and fences nearby.

But how Boston Metro Area compares to other cities out there? To answer this question, I decided to take a closer look at the Copenhagenize Index. The Index awards points in 13 different categories. A maximum of 4 points can be awarderd in each category:

Advocacy: I give Boston 2 points for some organized advocacy like Annual Tweed Ride, although I wonder if it is a bit too generous.

Bicycle Culture: Another 2 points. Many Bostonians still see bicycle as a purely recreational vehicle, but there is a growing number of commuters as well.

Bicycle Facilities: I think 3 points here is appropriate. Boston and surrounding towns seem to have quite many various facilities: bike lanes, paths, parking racks, and buses equipped with bike racks.

Bicycle Infrastructure: Another 2 points here. I think that we have not enough bike paths throughout the city. Most of existing ones are only bike lanes and there are not that many of them around.

Bike Sharing Programme: There is the Hubway: 61 stations, 600 bikes, first 30min. is free. Not bad, but: stations are ONLY in Boston (i.e. no trips to Cambridge, Somerville, etc.) and you have to agree to wear a helmet. Weird! Program has just started so for now 2 points only.

Gender Split: Doesn't look that great. The city of Boston reports that 72% of cyclists are men and 28% women. On the other hand, we do have a beautiful representation of female cyclists through many cycling blogs. Let's say 2 points is probably a good guess.

Modal Share for Bicycles: The City of Boston reports a pathetic 2.11% as of 2009: 1 point.

Modal Share Increase Since 2006: According to The City of Boston there's been a 122% increase in ridership from 2007 to 2009. I give it 2 points.

Perception of Safety: Judging from how many helmet-wearing bikers I see daily I can't be more generous beyond just a single point. Boston crash rate is 1 crash per 1030 miles (1657km) and 37% of those crashes involved a car. Also, "both men and women cyclists perceive cycling on off-road paths as significantly more safe than biking on Boston streets."

Politics: Again, difficult to say, which means that no media is loud enough about new facilities for bikers. This means that there is not much going on or City is just quiet about it. The situation is improving: new bike sharing program, new lanes. Let's say 2 points would be fair.

Social Acceptance: Hmm, I have a strong feeling that many drivers are still hostile towards city bikers, although on the other hand, most of them are at least neutral. Let's say 3 points would be fair.

Urban Planning: In the very downtown the situation is better, but a short bike trip to suburbs shows that sidewalks and bike paths/lanes are as rare as pink elephants - 1 point.

Traffic Calming: None on main roads (i.e. most roads). Better in strictly residential areas. Still, no limited car traffic areas anywhere. Even the Newbury St and Harvard Sq are car-oriented places. Weird. I don't think Boston deserves any points here.

Total: 22
I don't know if I was too strict but 22 points is a really poor result. The best U.S. city, Portland, got 36 points. Even the New York City received 29. Not to mention Amsterdam and Copenhagen with 54 and 52 points, respectively. Let's hope the bicycle culture in Boston will grow and more and more people will use their bikes everyday, not only on the Minuteman Bikeway.

I open the fridge and I see... Patriots

I am trying to figure out my plans for this Sunday. I think I will take Dr. J for a walk. It is supposed to be cool but sunny. Maybe we can visit the Friends Robbins Farm Park. It is placed on the top of the highest hill in Arlington with a fabulous view of Boston. One thing for sure - it is not a hill that I would love to visit on a bike. This incline would be a killer for my knees.

The park has also the longest slide in the area installed on the slope of the hill. Lots of fun for kids.

Friends Robbins Farm Park (Source: Google Maps)

I am thinking about all this since I don't want to stay home and listen to my neighbors watching Superbowl. For the last few weeks I have been seeing Patriots everywhere. People wear Pats merchandise, talk about Patriots, and there is obviously more Patriots on TV than ever. In fact, this is really annoying, since now I am unable to watch news normally. More than a half of the news time is dedicated to Patriots. I see Patriots everywhere. I am afraid to open my fridge...

Well, I would like to share the excitement but for an average European like me, who can't understand why a game with an egg-shaped ball carried by hand is called football, all this is just plain annoying. I actually hardly ever watch TV, I get news from the internet instead. But when I turn the TV on, I wish I had the BBC channel, since New England news channels are impossible to watch right now.

So this weekend I go out and I am taking Dr. J to the playground. It will be empty. Everyone will be watching the game. Great!

And now, something completely different: photo cameras

This time I decided to briefly write about something different - photo cameras. The problem that I have right now is that my aging DSLR camera does not fit in my jersey's back pockets. Not to mention that its weight is unacceptable on a bike. Taking pictures with this SLR requires me to carry panniers on my bike all the time. This may not seem like a problem on my Schwinn, but when I want to ride Poprad, I end up riding with no camera at all.

So far, I tried to rely on my phone "camera" but to be honest, no matter how "smart" that phone is, its camera is only a ridiculous toy. It is just too dumb to be even called a camera.

I have one more camera that I really like. It is very small, pretty lightweight, fun to use and its output is excellent:

It is the Olympus 35RD and yes, it is a film camera, which makes it unsuitable for taking quick pictures for the purpose of this blog. Too bad.

Because of all this, I have been thinking about buying a new compact camera. The only problem is that I am very picky when it comes to photography and there aren't many compact cameras that I would consider worth buying. Cameras, like bicycles, are just tools for me but it doesn't mean that I like using tools with unfriendly user interface, difficult handling and giving results that I am not happy with.

First I looked at Panasonic DMC-GF2, which is a great little camera, especially when paired with Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens. This combo is not particularly cheap (~$650), but I think it is worth it. My only complain would be the lack of optical viewfinder.

Even better than the Panasonic is Olympus PEN E-P3. Yes, it is quite a bit bulkier and also more expensive (>$800, yikes!) but its picture quality can be rivaled only by SLR cameras. PEN with a flat "pancake" lens could be almost the only camera I would need (Well, most of the time).

And then, when I was debating which camera would be better for me the CES 2012 happened at the beginning of this year and two more interesting cameras were announced. One of them was Canon PowerShot G1X, which looks particularly interesting for me since I own a Canon flash lamp and I could use it with G1X as well. Plus, it comes with a viewfinder (although likely a lousy one) and first sample photos looked promising. It shouldn't cost more than Olympus and overall looks quite attractive. I would prefer a faster lens though (even with less zoom).

Another new one was Fujifilm X-Pro1. This looks to me like THE one. It seems to have a fantastic viewfinder, excellent handling and build quality and user controls that are very much like those on traditional film rangefinders. I am really excited about this one and while it still is not going to fit in my jersey's pockets, it is much smaller than my SLR so maybe a small handlebar bag would the most appropriate place for it. The only problem is its price. It is not going to be cheap, for sure.

2008 Lemond Poprad review

My 2008 Lemond Poprad with cross tires on Nantucket Island

After my move across the pond I had no bike at all for several weeks. Then, an ancient Walmart mountain bike was given to me for free. I accepted it, since I wanted to move around Boston and learn the city and there is no better way of doing it than by bike. That bike was The-Worst-Bike-Ever. In terrible condition, with a single piece squeeky crankset, gears that barely worked, steel rims and caliper brakes (i.e. no brakes when wet). And that color: some crazy, reflective neon green. I dumped it as soon as I could and then I started thinking about a new one.

It was pretty clear to me that the next bike will be a cyclocross bike. Not that I am much into cyclocross or racing. I am not. But these bikes always seemed to be extremely versatile. They can handle paved roads, dirt, mud, snow, rain, whatever. Such bike can be a fast leopard, a mountain goat and a strong mule (with racks added). Since a mountain bike is completely pointless in the city and a road bike is somewhat limited, I knew that a cyclocross bike would be a win-win solution.

It was back in 2008 when I found Lemond Poprad in a local store. I liked it and bought it. Here is my review.

And here with road slicks on.

First impressions

Poprad is really sharp looking. White frame, carbon fork, white bar tape and saddle. Nice group set and pretty cool wheels. I like that almost all components are black. That makes the white parts stand out more.

Poprad feels pretty light (10.3kg) so it is easy to carry. It is stable and handles well but I noticed that with thicker cyclocross tires there is some very small toe overlap. It doesn't bother me much and it is completely gone with road slicks on. The toe overlap may be there for two reasons: first, the frame I have is a bit undersized for my height (I don't like to be stretched on bike too much). Second, it may be due to the short wheelbase, "square" frame geometry (seat tube length is nearly the same as top tube length), and long 175mm cranks. The overlap is so small that it doesn't really bother me much.

Frame and fork

The frame is U.S. made from "True Temper OX Platinum" steel. Whatever it means, it feels light. Some sources say it is essentially the American quivalent of Reynolds 853 tubing. I found some reports claiming around 1870g for frame only. No bad for a steel frame. It has some aggressive race geometry with 72.5 deg head tube angle and short 430mm chainstays. The wheelbase is only about 1020mm so this bike feels compact and agile. It also looks really sleek thanks to the small diameter steel tubing.

The frame has a Lemond emblem on the head tube, some decals on the top tube, and a bunch of braze-ons, although, not necessairly as many as I would like. There are two bottle cage mounts, sufficient number of cable housing mounts, rear brake bosses (Of course!), and even rear rack or fender mount holes in the dropouts. It does have a road brake mount bridge, which could be used for installing a fender or a rack, but there is no bridge at the bottom bracket so that end of the fender would be loose. Not much an issue for me since I don't use fenders on this bike anyway.

The rear derailleur hook is not replaceable (Bad!) and what I would also really like is a top-pull front derailleur. In bottom-pull derailleurs the cable has to go around the bottom bracket and usually gets really messy after a ride in rain or mud. Well, I don't really ride in mud and I don't enjoy rain, but a real cyclocross bike should be designed that way, I think.

The fork is made of carbon by Bontrager. Not much to say here except that it comes with cantilever brake bosses (Obviously!), fender mounts and a caliper brake mount hole. It is one of those aero-shaped forks, which means that I had to use a black electrical tape in order to secure the sensor from my old Sigma cyclocomputer. The standard mount was not designed for non-round fork tubing. Both frame and fork are secured by Cane Creek threadless headset.

Wheels

I really like how these Bontrager wheels look like. I must admit I felt a bit uneasy thinking about wheel stiffness since they have only 24 spokes. But so far so good, wheels stay true, even after many kilometers. Wheels are built from Bontrager Race rims and Bontrager Race hubs. They use flat spokes, which look cool but are another PITA when mounting my Sigma cyclocomputer magnet. The old type I have does not fit non-round spokes out of the box. The rear hub fits a 10 speed cassette. Stock tires are Bontrager Jones CX 700cx34, which I personally like a lot for off-road use. They are not too heavy and, when taken off the rim, can be folded for storage. Some people say those are not good tires for racing but I don't race so I don't care that much.

Drivetrain

The 175mm long cranks are branded by Bontrager and come with two chain rings (46T/38T). Bottom bracket has a hollow axle, opened from the chain ring side. Poprad also comes with a 10-speed cassette in the 11T-27T range. I really like the overall gear ratio. As you can tell this is not a road setup since cranks lack a large 53T chainring. I like it since this way the bike is easier to ride on hills, still pretty fast on road and simply more versatile. Derailleurs are by Shimano, 105 in the front and Ultegra in the rear. Overall, really nice. No issues here. Those are decent components I think and they work very well so far. Gear changing is buttery-smooth.

Brakes and shifters

Poprad came with Avid Shorty 4 cantilevers. I am not happy with these and they will be replaced with something else soon. They are just simply not powerful enough (And yes, they are properly adjusted). Shifter/brake combo levers are Shimano 105 STI. These work really well. The bike has also a second set of brake levers, Cane Creek Crosstop, mounted on the top of handlebars. This definitely makes riding more comfortable. Overall, good shifters, poor cantilevers. I will be replacing Avids with either other cantilevers or regular v-brakes with Travel Agents (To compensate for short pull with STI levers).

Handlebars, stem, seatpost, saddle

Poprad's stem is by Bontrager, with a 10deg rise, which makes the whole bike much easier to ride since unlike road bikes it does not require a fully horizontal body position. I feel however that it is a bit too long (100mm) for me so I may change it with a shorter, 80mm stem. Drop bars are also by Bontrager, 440mm wide. The bike comes also with a Bontrager carbon seat post and a Bontrager Race saddle. Overall, very nice, except the saddle. I just have hard time tuning into it. I guess the saddle should tune into my butt not the other way around. As I mentioned earlier, a white Selle An-Atomica will replace the stock saddle.

Other components

Poprad comes without pedals. I decided to go simply with Shimano PD-M540 as they are relatively versatile and inexpensive. No complains here.

Conclusions

The good:

+ great frame (U.S made), good fork

+ handles nicely, feels sporty,

+ lightweight,

+ good components (except brakes and saddle),

+ very versatile,

+ good transmission ratio.

The bad:

- brakes suck big time and need to be replaced with something that would actually stop this bike,

- uncomfortable saddle,

- frame is great but could have a couple more features (top-pull derailleur, bottom bracket fender bridge, etc.),

- a bit tricky to install a cyclocomputer due to non-round fork tubing and flat spokes,

- slight toe overlap with cross tires.

The ugly (The verdict):

Very nice bike, very versatile, can handle a lot. Great steel frame, nice fork and a really nice drivetrain (gear ratio). Brakes could be much better. The bike was $1500. Not cheap, but pretty good for what I got, I think.

Safety games

This post may not be about bicycling but it is related to road safety and personal health - topics that frequently show up here. Plus, the idea is so cool that I just have to present it here.

I have heard about it before. It is a concept of implementing the video/computer games theory to everyday life. Apparently, this theory can help solving the problem of disobeying speed limits. Most drivers either ignore them or drive just barely over the displayed limit. How can we encourage motorists to truly obey speed limits? Usually, towns would install speed cameras to take pictures of those who drive too fast. Unfortunately, this doesn't really drop the average speed of vehicles on the road. It just penalizes those who drive much too fast as speed cameras are usually set to detect vehicles above certain threshold, say 10kph above the posted speed limit. Otherwise, the system would clog quickly since nearly every single driver would have to be ticketed.

Kevin Richardson from San Francisco came up with a better idea. Together with the Volkswagen company, he installed a speed camera on one of the busy streets of Stockholm, but working differently. His speed camera takes pictures only of those who drive slower than the posted speed limit (30kph, in that case). His camera was also accompanied by a sign informing passing drivers that they can win a lottery for safe driving if their car is selected. This brilliant concept uses computer game theory to encourage motorists to obey speed limits. People like to be entertained and like to compete with each other, so why not have fun on the way to work? And if you can really win some money this way, then why not take a part in it?

Kevin's experiment was successful and during the first 3 days a total of 24,853 cars passed his camera. The average speed before the experiment was 32kph and dropped by 22% to 25kph during those 3 days.

Another interesting example on video games theory applied to everyday life is the experiment with piano stairs. In order to encourage people to use stairs more, instead of an escalator, special pressure plates were installed on steps and connected with audio system to play piano key sounds. The result - 66% more people chose the stairs instead of the escalator. They could enjoy playing the piano while walking up/down the stairs and better health. In fact, the change in usage of stairs/escalator before and during the experiment is quite astonishing as you can see it in this video:

Locking strategy

We have just received the first proper splash of snow last night and this morning I could finally tell that winter has arrived (Even though a quick look at the calendar tells me that we are half way through it already). Last night's snowfall was pretty lousy - just about 3cm, which will likely not survive till the evening as guaranteed by today's sunny weather. We are supposed to get more snow tomorrow. We will see.

In unrelated topic, I realized how lucky I am that I don't have to carry bike locks with me on my way to work. Usually, to park a bicycle in places, which are considered insecure (i.e. most public places), it is absolutely necessary to use some sort of a "thief-repelling" device. The common practice is to use at least 2 good locks (Those rated either Silver or Gold) to secure the bike to something solid and non-removable, like a sturdy steel fence, railing, etc. Well, obviously it would be best to use a designated bike rack, but since we are not in Copenhagen or Amsterdam, finding one in the place of our interest may be as difficult as searching for Yeti.

My locking strategy is pretty straightforward:

1. I don't lock my bike at all when I get to work. I can keep it in my office (Which is on the street level). And I don't have to carry locks on bike.

2. If I can, I don't leave my bike unattendend. This way I don't have to lock it. I take my bike with me everywhere I can.
3. For all other situations, I use two Kryptonite locks: an u-lock for securing the front wheel and a chain to secure the frame and the rear wheel to the bike rack. I remove all removable accessories (lights, etc.).

Two different locks work usually best. The only problem is their significant weight. The u-lock can be mounted on the bike frame in a special bracket. Transporting the chain is a bit more of a PITA but I found out that the ~1m long chain can be easily wrapped around my waist and it doesn't interfere with pedaling.

There are other ways of securing a bike in public places. Below is an example of a novel, lightweight "thief-repellant" installed on this nice Specialized. Very innovative.