Yesterday was national Bike to Work Day.

When you work from home, the whole point of bike to work day is kind of moot. Instead of sulking about my inability to participate, I decided I’d do my own version and call it Bike INSTEAD of Work Day.

Or I guess I could call it Bike For Work Day. Since I was doing my first real big ride on our new Hakkalügi cross bike, I could legitimately call this work, right?

Yesterday was also Herr Counselor Winkle’s 50th birthday. Last week he sent out a notice of adventure, which 8 of us felt obliged to heed. The notice is pasted here, notice there are no pre-excuses allowed:

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Notice of Adventure

il mamma mia anello

72 Miles

27 Miles of Dirt

8179’ of Vertical

see attached map and profile

The Dirt

* The Creek

** %^*@%) Dirt

**** The Sliver

***** (*&%@ Canyon

*** Willow Creek

****** #@C

*********** The Camp

Hazards will be encountered; special riding skills required; SPK’s advised; no preexcuses

every man dies. not every man lives – Henry Wallace

10:00 AM at the Annex – Thursday, May 14, 2009

Dinner to follow: 7:15PM at Riviera

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Of note is the Henry Wallace quote. Since this is a Thursday, Mr. Winkle was clever enough to guilt-trip those of us contemplating pre-excuses with the brilliant quote:

“Every man dies, not every man lives.”

Sage words, not to be ignored. Attached to the notice of adventure email was the following route slip:

Note that we have both stars for quality and ! for technical issues.

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All this takes place in Sonoma County, and in particular the zone between Santa Rosa and the coast. It’s one of the most beautiful places on the planet. We ride year round, and May is particularly nice.

What follows is a brief tale of the day’s adventure.

We met at 10 AM sharp, birthday boy Don handed out the laminated route slips and top tube stickers.

The troops were circling, including the cat McNutty

Don is apparently getting wiser as he’s getting older, and had arranged for a sag vehicle.

The ride had several features with various ratings. Note the back of the route slip above. The first was The Creek, our normal way out of town, which ends in 4.7 miles of dirt along with some beautiful scenery.

Looking out over some vineyards and off to Mt. St. Helena in the distance.

Off The Creek now, time for a bit of nice pavement.

But in no time, we’re back on the dirt, fully immersed in the West County now…

One of the most beautiful road on the planet (according to me) is Coleman Valley Road.

Here’s a little movie of our schlep up Coleman.

Coleman.mov

Coleman ends at the ocean, fog looms.

One more rest stop before the secret dirt stash.

Back on pavement now…

Bush Lupine blooming on Highway 1.

This sign clearly says no mountain bikes.

A good shot of overcrowded Sonoma County.

And on to Willow Creek.

What’s this? More secret dirt stash?

Edging our way back toward civilization: The Camp.

Even a welcoming committee in Occidental.

And back on familar pavement rolling into Santa Rosa.

So there you go. Mission accomplished. Bike instead of work. Paying attention to what we preach:

Addendum

They say it’s going to be 100º here today. An addendum to the above slogan is Ride More Sweat Less, so I headed out for an early ride/swim. Thank goodness we have malls in this town, so people go there instead of here:

That’s my 22 acre private lake. No one was swimming in it but me. Huh?

Oh, we have freeways too. Easier to navigate than pesky, dirty trails like this:

By the way, that’s the same Mt. St. Helena that’s visible in a couple pictures further above.

The New York Times has a section called “Room for Debate” where they introduce a controversial subject, then ask people who allegedly know something about the topic to comment. I guess the whole bike world was unavailable because yesterday they interviewed me for Room for Debate.

The topic this time is “Is it the Athelete or the Equipment?”

The Times says:

The International Cycling Union recently alerted professional teams that it intends to crack down on new technology in bicycle designs and accessories that might give an unfair advantage to teams with access to the latest breakthroughs. Why should a line be drawn denying them access to the latest technology?

And I got to answer. Unfortunately I was limited to 300 words, which doesn’t even allow you to scratch the surface. Today (Saturday May 9) it’s on the front page of the website. OK, so it’s the slowest newstime of the week other than 2AM Monday morning, still…

Stifle Innovations, Consumers Lose

Scot Nicol founded Ibis Cycles, a high-end manufacturer of mountain and road bicycles in 1981. He built the first Ibis carbon mountain bikes in 1988, and was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1990.

On the surface, the International Cycling Union rules have the appearance of leveling the playing field for riders and manufacturers. But when examined more closely, the policies make little sense.

Fielding a competitive team on a pro tour level often costs in excess of 10 million euros, with bike manufacturers often contributing greater than $1 million in cash. Bike development costs are a small fraction of this total compared to myriad other marketing, travel, salary and overhead costs.

Promoting rider safety is one reason often given for the cycling union’s rules. But are they really qualified to tell us what is safe? For example, the rules forbid disc brakes on bikes used in cyclocross, a rapidly-growing freakshow offshoot of road and mountain biking that is run in the winter, off road, frequently in muddy conditions. Not allowing disc brakes (which are much safer than rim brakes in wet conditions) on cyclocross bikes is akin to telling Formula One teams they still need to use drum brakes on their 200 mile-per-hour race cars.

As in other sports, advancements in cycling are propelled by competition and made better by the feedback of athletes. Who ultimately benefits? Consumers — since they are soon riding the same or nearly the same bikes that are used to win races like the Tour de France.

We know that this happens in other racing sports, too. Automobile, motorcycle and sailing competitions all contribute to advancements in each of their industries, though there’s often initial debate about the use of innovations.

Formula One racing, for instance, recently allowed ‘hybrid’ battery/electric boost systems on its cars, adding bursts of approximately 80 horsepower to the drive wheels of the car. Eventually, the consumer (and maybe even the earth) will benefit from the F1 mandate to promote green technology.

In sports, as in other fields, heavy regulation can stifle innovation. Ultimately, if governing bodies like the International Cycling Union wins, the consumer loses.

I had a couple thousand more words of comments written, but space didn’t allow…

IF TODAY IS

THAT MEANS TOMORROW IS