Being Green means indoor bike parking

I just found out that the Hearst building has indoor bike parking. That's a sweet benefit! It's also apparently one of the requirements for getting certified as a green building.

Bike race #8.

Rollers. Wait by pool table. Rollers. Wait by pool table. Rollers. Wait by pool table. Rollers. Drink beer.

Last week I had the privilege to race on Dave Perry's fantastic italian rollers. Riding these feels like someone has lifted your bike and you're just riding on air.

The even was called "spillage in the village" and there was plenty of spillage. Race details as follows.

First qualifier, my back wheel taps the wall behind me. This sends me flying forward off the rollers. Bizarre. I'm allowed to redo the qualifier when this is pointed out to the official.

Second qualifier. Feels like I can only get 8 pedal strokes out before slipping off the rollers. No biggie. After I come off, I realize that the drums are still spinning at around 40mph when I try and rest my hands there.

First race. What the #$^&>? Why do they put me up against A. Lacorte? He's faster than me by a mile and in it to win. That makes me nervous. I get 3 pedal strokes out and fall off the rollers. Big disappointment for the crowd. But then I see Lacorte slow down to ride easy. This makes me a little angry, so I plop my bike back up on the rollers and I ride my legs off just so he doesn't get a free ticket.

Second race. My friend Tito is spotting me. I ask him to help me get a couple of test starts in. Things go a little more smoothly. The official asks us to get ready and we're off. After a few seconds, the crowd is in a serious frenzy, stomping the floors and banging the ceilings. We must be neck and neck I think. Tito tells me that the race is mine. I relax a little... and there is my big mistake. I am caught. After the race is over, I think I've won but the referee tells me that I would have won this heat if the race was 990 meters. Unfortunately the race was 1000 meters. I feel better after I get home when I find out that I lost to Dave Wiswell, a pretty good rider.

There are some videos and photos up at nyvelocity.com.

Here's my race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JbO1glVv4c

And videos of the crashes, including the one where I go flying forwards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe3Z4ffIYTM

Is this really only race #8? Next roller race need to focus more on the smooooooth start than the jump start.

Google maps mashup : bike race and event locator

I almost forgot about this, I programmed it a couple of months ago. http://www.alphabetware.com/gmaps/

It's a simple bike race finder that uses data from Bikereg.com to show the races as events marked on the map. It can be useful if you're a racer and you're willing to travel - but want to find a race nearby, or if you are trying to decide between two races to see which one is closer, or you want to see how far away a specific race is, etc, etc...

Visual Resistance

This stencil is just around the corner from home. I saw the culprits putting it up. It reads, "we own the street" and has an image of a track bike. Nice job!

Kissena Velodrome... World Cycling

I was happy and surprised to see a picture (with me in it) on the homepage of worldcycling.com. It was submitted as the photo of the day. I'm the biker in 5th position, green jersey. This photo is the same day of the snowball race that I wrote about earlier.



The kissena club liked the picture since this photo is taken at the kissena velodrome, and they posted it on the kissena.info website. I guess they would have liked it more if I was wearing a Kissena jersey... I'll buy one for next year.

Learned inspiration

I read an interesting article today. It explains that humans love to learn. The article says that neuroscientists at USC and NYU found out that trying something new: such as exploring a ride we've never done before -- causes our brain to release endorphins that make us feel good. And new information that triggers the most memories also produces the most pleasure.

In college I did a summer psychology internship with a professor who wrote a book about his theory of 'learned helplessness'. That's the reason for my topic, 'learned inspiration'.

Biking home from my job on 59th and lexington today I decided to take the long route in spite of the fact that I've been trying to take it easy lately. I hopped on the bike and rode through central park up to 72nd street, then down to 55th street, over to the west side bike path, and all the way around to battery park then north again to get to home sweet home on the good old lower east side. It was foggy and humid but not quite wet out, about 58 degrees.

This relatively short 45 minute bike ride brought on a wealth of learning and new experiences. On the west side bike path, I saw two guys on segway scooters with puffy balloon tires. Since I'd never seen the X2 I must have been staring... when oops! I bike off a curb and I'm riding with traffic on the west side highway instead of on the bike path. No choice but to keep going until I get back on the path (about 300 yards). Keep riding, keep looking over the water to the New Jersey skyline it's really quite beautiful in this weather. Off in the distance, I can make out the Asbury Park Ferris Wheel. Then later, as I'm detouring through Battery Park I head towards a ramp to avoid some steps... but I don't quite make it and the bike HOPS off the ramp. One foot comes off a pedal and I'm wobbling along holding my balance with just one foot on one pedal. Thank heavens for the brooks sprung saddle I'm riding!

That makes three totally new experiences, 1) the guys on the segways, 2) riding off a curb into traffic, and 3) meandering through battery park detours in an unfamiliar maze of paths. Not to mention the amazing views I have of the manhattan bridge as I head up the east side bike path.

Then a fourth new thing happens. I'm biking on Delancey street under the Williamsburg bridge. I already know about the shared use street markings... and I am mildly amused by the fact that I'm riding over these things... until I make a left on the arcane and little Lewis Street where am completely surprised to find markings on Lewis Street too.

This is great I think to myself, if I keep riding all over the city eventually street markings and bicycling-good-karma will appear everywhere I ride, Woo hoo!

Finally a quote from circleAcycles, "There's lots of gear and lots of money to be spent, but the only thing you need is to ride. Ride places other people drive; ride places you used to drive. Ride."

delicious wists

Wists is the social shopping network. Nice, when it works.

What is it with eBay these days?

Here they are trying to emulate Woot. Ebay created a section called 'today's big deals'. A great idea for sellers... but look at the implementation for buyers.

What?... No RSS feed? I guess I am supposed to check this page every day. As a consumate online shopaholic, I'd really prefer a live bookmark - like the ones I have for newegg and woot. You know, the orange 'live bookmark' link that appears on pages like this:
and lets me view the feed like this:

Success has many fathers, failure has just one.

2006 Season is Over

Should have followed my own advice and excercised greater caution.

Fell off the bike on Monday night and broke my clavicle. I also damaged my new Giro helmet, and am thankful for that piece of styrofoam protecting my noggin.

Today as the orthopaedist was explaining things to me, I fainted. Funny since I was fine for days - with the pain and everything else. I guess I just couldn't swallow her explaining everything to me while looking at the x-rays.

Her and an assistant had to lift me onto an exam table, propping my legs up with pillows, and the assistant applied cold compresses until I regained my senses a few minutes later. Fainting is not fun.

Stronger legs and caution advised

I'm getting stronger or the others are getting weaker. Races seem easier.

Bad news #1.
I raced at the velodrome on 8/9, and would have gotten points in the snowball... but... I was DQ'd!

Reason was for passing in the sprinters lane on the inside on the next-to-last lap. I didn't argue. I had the sprinter's lane from turn 4 (when no one was in it...) I accelerated hard out of the turn, and as two riders started coming down into sprinter's lane I had to squeeze down below the line as I was passing them. The only way to avoid the uncomfortable squeeze would have been to lock up my rear wheel. What made this whole thing silly was I ended up riding onto the grass just before turn 1 rather than risk taking everyone out. I got back on track after everyone passed me and finished a wheel behind the 4th place finisher. Oh well.

Bad news #2.
...racing on Saturday morning in prospect park someone on a green Mendocino crashed in front of me and we both went down hard. It sucked. We were going about 30-35mph, at the bottom of the hill near the lake. I have a quite bit of road rash and I'm going to see the doctor today because I almost fainted after jabbing my abdomen into a doorknob by accident. The good news is that it seems like the (new) bike was not badly damaged, only the saddle ripped, brake lever scuffed, quick-release scuffed, and wheels need truing. What a great first ride on the new bike!

Gory Pics
Shoulder and arm - the red spot that looks like a nipple is actually road rash on my back.



Abdomen



Torso and leg


Yeck!