Archive for January, 2009

I doubt Hutchinson still offers the G1 version of the Python but if they do buy it. Buy several.

I bought my first and only Python about 5 years ago. Then I was racing the sport division in my local race and logging quite a few miles at the local MTB park. Most of the other guys who rode a lot also used the Pythons, both on the front and back. While I don’t typically go for fads, so many of the other riders bragged about the tire that I decided to give it a try. Since I like to rotate tires from front to back, I put the Python on the front and moved the old green Continental to the back. I’ve never removed the tire from the front wheel since I put it on. When riding the Python, I feel like my front tire has claws. This thing sticks to everything. Yet, the rolling resistance seems minimal - at least a whole lot better than a lot of tires I’ve tried. Plus, the high profile of the Python absorbs the little hard, bone jarring scrabble and bumps seen off- or on-road. As for durability the tire has been great. I have ridden it for almost a year on the streets of Memphis (about 3 grand in miles) and the tire still has plenty of life. (I try to use front and rear brakes almost equally during bike commuting.) In fact, this past week a car pulled right up to the edge of the road while I was on the side walk and I locked up the back wheel and hit the front brake hard but the Python held firm beneath me. It has also protected me from the abundant road cacti in Mempis - only 1 flat so far.

It’s hard to find a better tire than the Python. I hope the G2 version is as good as what I have.

I give the Python a 5 Broken Down Car Ratting.

Likes: Excellent grip, excellent durability, good protection against road cacti, low rolling resistance
Dislikes: None
Best Uses: Street, off-road, mild to moderate mud

Let me be clear. I find commuting via bike superior for a multitude of reasons. There’s health, economics, environmental, political, …etc. That said, I still drive my car regularly.

I have a couple different routes to work. The shortest is about 16 miles each way. I will only do this route on my mountain bike since it involves a little off-road action. On my road bike, the shortest ’safe’ route is ~20 miles each way.

So…why do I live so far from work? Simple, when I bought my house 9 years ago, it was not a concern. Since that time, my priorities have changed.

Most days, I don’t mind having such a long commute. It gives me plenty of time to get the heart rate up and the blood moving. Besides, it is almost a matter of pride when people say “you commute how far!?!?”.

The downside is that riding is not always practical.

Here’s a good example. The other day, my wife (Cortney) needed to take the baby (Clara) to the doctor for shots. Since she knew she would have her hands full with the baby, so she wanted me to watch Ella (our 4 yo) while she went. The appointment was at 10am on a Wednesday. If I were to ride my bike to work, I would not be able to make it to work until noon at the earliest. Not exactly ideal.

Sometimes, the weather *keeps* me from riding. I can handle cold. I can handle rain. I can handle wind. Put them all together for 40 miles…not so much. Fortunately, living in Texas, I don’t have to worry about weather too much. Wind is regular, rain is occasional, and cold is unusual.

I guess you could call me a ‘casual’ commuter. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion.

Here’s my typical schedule:
Monday: Normal commute via road bike. (~40 miles total)
Tuesday: Normal commute via mountain bike. I usually hit up some local trails on the way home. (~50-60 miles total)
Wednesday: Car day. I take in a fresh set of clothes for the next week and bring home the dirties. I also stop at the grocery store on the way in and get some food to keep at work. Additionally, Wednesday night is my wife’s ‘night out’. I try to be home as early as possible so that she can get some relax time.
Thursday: Normal commute via mountain bike. I usually hit up some local trails on the way home. (~50-60 miles total)
Friday: Normal commute via road bike. (~40 miles total)

Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

This schedule amounts to 180-200 miles/week. That is some good exercise. Additionally, that is about 120 miles that I do not spend in my car. (Note: 120 != 180-200 because of additional miles for mountain biking & safe routes.)

This is what I plan, but rarely does it actually happen. This week is a prime example. The weather was crappy on Tuesday. Wednesday, I had a late meeting a work so Cortney couldn’t have her free night. We traded and I rode to/from work on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. I really try to make sure I ride at least 3 days a week.

Why do I bring this up? Just to point out that you don’t have to fully commit for it to make a difference in your life. Start out simple.

Here’s how you do it.
1. Start off by driving your proposed route(s). Figure out what is the safest way to get to/from your work place.
2. On a Saturday/Sunday/non-workday, get on your bike and ride your route.
3. At the beginning of the week, check the weather and pick a day for your inaugural ride.
4. The day before your ride, take a set of clothes to work along with any toiletries that you will need.
5. Ride to work.
6. Pat yourself on the back.

If all goes well, try to increase your frequency.

Two years ago, I was the only person in my office that ever commuted. In the past year, I’ve helped 4 other people (in a 30 person office) make their first commute. 3 of them still do it on a regular basis.

If you continue to ride, you will soon find your mid-section smaller and your wallet thicker (well…unless you really get into it and start getting fancy bike stuff…) all while reducing pollution and dependency on foreign oil. Even if you don’t go for all that hippie environmental stuff, riding home after a hard day at work is a great stress reliever.

It’s a heartbreaking story of pain and anguish full of love lost and found again. Not really. The short answer is I wanted to ride more without spending more time away from my family.

About 8 years ago, I was fat. I had gone from a relatively tone 180 lbs high school swimmer to a flabby 208 lbs recently married college grad. Most of the weight had come in the one year since I had gotten married and graduated. The combination of being stuck in a cubicle all day and the realization that we now were making enough money to be able to eat out on a regular basis led to an unhealthy lifestyle. At the time, my office was about half a mile from my apartment, yet I still drove to work every morning.

I decided something needed to change.

While on internships in college, I had started mountain biking. It was an activity that I enjoyed doing, but the terrain at Purdue (Northern Indiana) did not exactly inspire awe. I decided to see what Austin had to offer.

Needless to say, I got hooked. Really, I became obsessed.

Within about a year, I had lost all of the weight I had gained and then some. I was mountain biking nearly every day on local trails (of which, we have a surprising amount). My obsession did not fade with the years. It only got stronger. I even tried out the local race scene.

At this point, I still was not riding to work. We had moved to suburbia and honestly, the thought hadn’t really crossed my mind.

Then, on a glorious day in February of 2004, my wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl (Ella).

While I obviously wanted to spend as much time as possible with Cortney and Ella, I still wanted to be able to ride my bike for fun and fitness. With mountain biking, not only do you spend hours on the trail, but you also spend time getting ready and driving to/from the trails. I thought maybe doing some road riding would be a more efficient way to get some exercise while keeping in bike shape.

I bought a cheap, used road bike from a friend. I did my first road ride while Ella was napping about 1 week after she was born. It was cold, rainy, and windy. I rode by myself and honestly did not have much fun. I didn’t really ride on the road much after that.

Actually, I wasn’t riding much at all for a while.

This was also about the time that gas started to creep up. It was still under $2/gallon, but it was quickly rising. At the time, I was driving a ‘mid-size’ truck which was true in name only. It was really a V-8 power Dodge Dakota. It was a very nice truck and hauled my mountain bike very nicely. It was, however, costing me ~$50/week in gas.

It was almost a revelation. I could save time and money by commuting.

Now, you’re saying “wait…how could you save time by commuting?” Here’s how. I was spending about 1 hour/day in the car getting to/from work and 1 hour/day at the gym. Instead of only getting a 1 hour workout, I could get a nice 2 hour workout on the bike (way better than the gym any day) while getting to/from work. I call that a net win.

I first tried my commute on a Saturday. I wanted time to try out my route without being too late to work.

It went smoothly and I started to occasionally commute by bike almost immediately. I had a healthy 20 mile each way commute on relatively safe roads.

I was also blessed with a very bike friendly work place. The bike racks were located inside the parking garage with a locked fence around them. We had showers available and management did not mind me sticking a drying rack in an empty closet. Furthermore, my hours were flexible so that I could time my commute to remain during daylight hours so that purchasing lights was not immediately necessary.

Since my first commute, I have refined my routes, my equipment, my frequency, and my methods.

I even learned how to enjoy riding my bike on the road.

It’s days like today that I get that question 5 or 6 times. It’s as if something may have changed between the last time that I rode to work when it was raining and 34 degrees and now. I suppose I should be asking in response, “Did you drive your car again today?!” – a legitimate question given global warming and pollution today.

Yes, riding on days like today can be a struggle. It’s not so much the rain or the wind or the temperature. I think it’s more of the mood that the environment sets as a whole. It makes you just want to stay in bed.

After a few miles on the bike I forget about being hesitant to ride and begin to feel constrained and too warm in my cycling clothing. Getting into a rhythm, I unzip a bit and feel the rain and cold on my neck and chest. It feels good that the rain and cold feel good.

Two miles from work, I hear my brake rubbing. That’s unusual. I touch the front brake several times. Nope, that’s air leaking from the front tire. I pull over at a convenience store and begin the task of replacing the punctured tube – the result of another broken beer bottle. People come and go, looking curiously at me as they pass. No one says anything; strange for Memphis but it’s still dark and this isn’t the best part of town.

I fix the flat and ease back onto the road. As I stop at the light a van pulls up close to me and budges in front. I look at the passenger window for a sign of a confrontation. Instead, a school girl, aged 13 to 14 I guess, smiles honestly and warmly and gives me a wave. The stoplight changes and we move off.

Did I ride today? Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

January 14, 2009
Weathering the Storm
After a few weeks off the bike, Liz returned to riding to work on a day filled with snow, sleet and slush. Read about how she toughed it out.

By Liz DiFebo

Winter weather has set in hard in southeastern Pennsylvania, with its grab bag of rain, ice, wind, stretches of freezing days and sprinklings of unnaturally warm days that give everyone head colds and confuse plants and birds. It was really, I thought, the perfect time of year for my lock to break. As I waited to cash in on its lifetime warranty, my commute turned mainly into a combination of walking and taking the bus, as well as a few rides from my husband and friends. I’d come home and growl as days passed without finding a replacement waiting for me in our mail. Meanwhile, the weather grew more unpredictable, and I began to wonder if I’d even want to start riding again when my lock was returned.

But the day it appeared on my doorstep, there wasn’t even a question as to how I was getting to work the next morning. You know how sometimes you or your significant other goes on a trip and for like a day or two you’re kind of loving your freedom and having your space to yourself, and then it kind of gets boring and lonely, and then when they come back you totally forget that they always leave their socks on the living room floor and they’re just the most beautiful awesome person in the world again, just like they were when you first met? It was totally like that. The forecast for the next day was wretched, but when I walked outside that gray, dreary morning, I hopped on without a second thought.

I headed out in rain and returned home in sleet. I arrived at work with ridiculous helmet hair, and left with wet heavy sort-of-snow clinging to my coat. It was disgusting, cold, uncomfortable–and thoroughly enjoyable.

I rode from work to the gym, to a fast-paced yoga class that thawed me out and warmed me up for the remainder of the ride home. As I stood in the gym lobby after class, arranging my mat on my backpack and untangling my helmet, my yoga teacher looked outside and said, “I feel bad that you have to ride in this.” I replied that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, and then realized that I didn’t HAVE to ride in it at all…it was a choice. An odd choice, maybe, but a choice I’ve rarely regretted.

Since then, there have been quite a few mornings where the absolute grossness of what was going on outside should have convinced me to use the bus, but I’ve found that on those mornings, the ride can be even more satisfying. I feel almost like I’ve accomplished something (I’m not sure what exactly, but I just go with it) and it makes me feel a little stronger, a little tougher and definitely a little happier.

Check out Bicycling’s Winter Gear slideshow so you can ride all season long, just like Liz.

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