I was wandering through the League of American Bicyclists web pages the other day looking to see if the little fall newsletter was there as a pdf file. In the process, I found this article:
As I was heading to the Tierra Trails this afternoon for a quick bit of mental health therapy on the mountain bike, I noticed a new bit of trail that connects to La Tierra trails from just to the west of the Frank Ortiz Dog Park. Riding west from the city and past the dog park on Camino de las Crucitas, just about fifty or so feet before you are about to veer right onto Buckman Road, there is a small trailhead that cuts to the right and marked by a white signpost. That small trail alleviates the need to ride on the roads until you get to the trail entrances on Camino de las Montoyas. The trail wanders hither and yon with some serious whoop de dos until you get to the trail crossing onto the concrete trailhead just to the east of the NM 599 intersection. Chapeau to the trail builders and I suspect Tim Rogers had something to do with this.
That all said, it is busy out there. I ran into about a dozen cyclists in my seven mile dirt circuit, which is a lot for me to run into on a weekday. One almost ran me over as I stopped to yield the trail to a couple walking their dog. So please, as Miss Manners in the Cycling Independent reminds us, don't be an asshole out there. The hospitals are full enough already and you don't need to add to the gang needing a bed. A lot of people are out trying to get some air, mental health, and exercise during this lockdown and we need to respect each other's space. Bottom line, be careful and courteous out there, leave a little more room for error, and save the "hold my beer" stunts for next year.
Indeed, the new bit of trail is narrow, with few places to yield, and a tad technical in places. I nearly had a kiss and tell moment tonight (Friday) with two oncoming riders but fortunately, we were all holding some speed back to account for oncoming traffic. Be careful and considerate out there.
Somehow sprained my back yesterday and this morning was no fun, but that's no excuse acceptable to the dog for not walking her.
First order of business was screw in the flagpole mount and raise Old Glory to honor those who served. Uncles Ralph and Roy who served in SE Asia and Europe, respectively, John Zeh Jr, my first wife's dad, who landed in Normandy on D+3, friends like RPD Officer Fred "Woody" Woodard who served in the 101st Airborne and had his fill of war in places like Bastogne, Pat O'Brien and Tore Knos who fought in the Vietnam War, Col. Harold O'Grady, who won a DFC flying transports out of New Guinea in the Pacific Theatre, and so many others. A moment of silence to honor those who returned, those who didn't make it back, and those who came back but whose internal wars never ended.
The turnaround for the hike for today was at the confluence of the Saddleback and Chamisa Trails, a very pretty saddle at about 8400 feet elevation. I thought of going on to Windsor but with the back not happy, felt it was wise to stop at the first junction.
Annie, of course, was happy to get out of the house and romp in the mountains.
The start and finish, at the Hyde Park pulloff, is at about 7800 feet altitude. So about 600 feet of climbing. A lovely day all in all, and my back even felt a lot better after bumbling along over hill and dale. Hope all of you had a pleasant and Covid-free day!
Patrick Brady, aka Padraig, started Red Kite Prayer in 2009. I have always enjoyed it but have sometimes missed checking in for months on end. The usual excuses apply. Patrick and others have now started a new online magazine, The Cycling Independent. It looks interesting and as Padraig says, is geared towards a wide audience rather than a niche market, or in his words:
“…I care less about what kind of bike and what kind of ride we write about than I do the overall mission, the desire to affirm that cycling gives us so much more than a fun way to burn calories… ”
Cycling has always had a mystical quality for me. Or, remembering that overused story about the Zen master, “I ride my bicycle to ride my bicycle”. Anything else sorta misses the point. Now what was the point?
I'm glad Padraig, Robot, and the gang from Red Kite Prayer are continuing The Good Fight on the Innertubes. It was at RKP that I first read Padraig's wonderful description of The Prayer as I recovered from months on end of down time and increased girth as the result of multiple "fall down and go boom" events in 2016 and as I struggled to get back in the groove.
"Summoning the strength to make a final surge to the finish is as
universal as the urge to finish; no one wants to roll across the line in
defeat and that final effort is the chance to accelerate to a personal
victory that comes from the satisfaction of knowing you left everything
on the course." --Padraig
Anyway, I've added The Cycling Independent to the blog roll and suggest you check it out. For an idea of what you may someday find there, I offer this snippet from a Padraig piece in a 2019 RKP essay:
There will be chaos—keep pedaling.
—Anonymous
...“There will be chaos.” In that I hear the lesson of acceptance, that no matter how much I want to get through this particular chaos, the future will hold more chaos. Acceptance is my reminder to myself that I might as well chill; any plan I have isn’t going to it—the plan, that is.
The second half of the quote—”keep pedaling”—is an imperative. It isn’t an invitation. It isn’t a suggestion. It isn’t a request. It goes Nike’s “just do it” one better because in order to keep pedaling, one must already be pedaling. In as much as this is an imperative, it is also an assurance; you’re doing it right. Now just keep doing it...."
Heh. Once again, the bicycle as a metaphor for life. Good advice, especially during this election season as well as in bike racing. Most of us don't do the Tour de Industrial Park. We all do the Tour de Life.
Check out The Cycling Independent and consider a subscription.
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| Litespeed Gravel GRX 400 photographed in its natural habitat |
The bike is fast and comfortable. A lot lighter than the Salsa LaCruz (no kidding) and it just wanted to be upshifted.I found myself down in Eldorado, starting at the house on the north side, in under an hour, which surprised me. The bike is efficient.
The cockpit fits well. I was a little worried about ordering a bike without a test ride but comparing my existing bikes to the specs on Litespeed's web site, they seemed very close. It worked. I had to do a few minor adjustments on saddle height and fore/aft position, and am still trying to decide on handlebar height, but the bike fits like a glove. I'm glad I took Litespeed Sales Engineer Sam Voigt's advice and added the 30 mm headtube extender. 20 mm would have been fine, too. I have leeway either way, if I want to drop the bars for a more aero ride or raise them to be more upright, perhaps on technical trails, there is room both ways.
Shifting the GRX 400 setup was precise and the hydraulic brakes were smooth and progressive. No surprises. The fine tuning trim on the front derailleur is nice to have going across ten cogs. I was a little concerned with getting the GRX400 setup rather than the higher priced stuff, but it clicks, shifts, and brakes as well as anything else I am used to riding.
The brake/shifter hoods are big, but that turned into an advantage. I found myself on the hoods a lot, especially pulling and climbing and in rough spots they provided plenty of support. Kinda reminded me of old fashioned TT bars, in a way.
At least on this bike, there is a lot of Torx hardware, so I had to get a new multitool. No big deal, and Rob and Charlie's was well stocked with Park Tools.
The Rail Trail is pretty flat, only losing a couple hundred feet between Santa Fe and Eldorado, but has a lot of sharp ups and downs. I never did get into the low end of the cassette (the 32 and 36 cogs) with the small front chainring but its nice to know that with a low 30x36 combination, you are unlikely to run out of gear ratios on tougher climbs. For really strong riders, swapping out the chainrings for 48-32 might be an option.
Even the saddle, which I grumped about the other day, was OK for a two and a half hour ride. I still think the material grabs my lycra shorts more than I prefer compared to shiny leather saddles, but it was comfortable and the size, amount of support, and shape was fine. A leather Terry Men's Ti saddle just arrived from Arizona friend Pat O'Brien. I'm not sure I would want to do a century ride on the stock WTB Volt Medium as I think the constant rubbing on the higher friction surface would lead to chafing, but everyone's hind end is different and for shorter rides, the Volt is fine. I'm gonna swap out to the Terry Ti though.
As far as handling I think Nick Legan's Adventure Cycling review was spot on. The bike has quick, road like handling and encourages spirited riding. As far as my first impressions, it handled very well on the somewhat loose surfaces of the Rail and Spur Trails, even on deep gravel sections that tended to slew the bike around a little. I found myself taking curves faster than usual (and faster than I thought I would on a first ride on a new bike). Nick had said those wanting a slower handling bike might choose the Cherohala SE. I am glad I chose the Gravel. Also, the Panaracer Gravel King SK 700x38c Tubeless tires, which might not be the most awesome on pavement, were fast and sure footed on the Rail Trail. Those wanting a more road-like tire might want to experiment with other rubber.
Overall first impression? Awesome. All that talk about Ti frames having a magic ride seems to be true.
Added Monday afternoon. A quick change to the Terry Ti saddle and a nice ride. Picture taken down in Eldorado somewhere.
Well, it was a good day in the saddle.
First ride on this new rig was only about ten miles, after I wrapped up work, my significant other got
home from volunteering at the Food Depot, and I finished putting pedals
on the bike and figuring out with help from the helpful Litespeed folks in Tennesee (Sam Voigt and Dave Dickey) how to properly mount the rear derailleur. Rides nice. Almost too nice. Almost plush, but stiff and responsive. I think I have
to put narrow tires pumped to 130 psi on the bike so it feels like one
of the boneshakers that I am used to.
The downtube is big. Bigger than I thought. Wow.
The tires should be great for off road and the handling geometry is
exactly what I was hoping for after reading the Nick Legan review in Adventure Cycling: quick and road bike like but not nervous. The tires
were pretty good on flat road where the bike felt really fast but when I
was headed up the steep part of Gonzales Road and was grinding away in
the 30x28 combo, you could feel the little offroad nubbins on the rear tire groaning and deforming. Maybe I will try to find a better on road/off road tire
compromise but if I were to hammer the Rail Trail, I think those would
be great tires. As Litespeed told me, the whole point of those tires is gravel, not pavement, and I suspect in that, they will be great.
Handlebar controls are excellent. Thank you longtime pal and Adventure Cycling bike reviewer, Patrick O'Grady, for our discussion of various levels of Shimano whizbangery as I was sorting through this decision. The shifting and front derailleur fine tuning worked well, the brakes predictable and firm with only a couple finger touch and as I found out, quite powerful when some dipshit in a car made an unannounced left turn directly into my path. And somehow, I got a wheel upgrade from the listed Sun Ringle Charger Comps to a pair of FSA AGX'es.
Only minor annoyance is the saddle, but I expected that might not be perfect and in most respects it is pretty good for a short ride. I don't think it is a
bike company's job to know everyone's ass as well as one knows one's
own ass.
The saddle on the bike was just a little squishy. Not bad, actually, and great saddle shape, but a little soft for an ass that has forty two years of high mileage on
stiffer Selle Flites or Selle Turbos in it. Pen Pal Pat O'Brien has a spare Terry he is going to mail me.
Bottom line is this felt pretty darn good on first spin. I do have to get this rig offroad onto some of the nearby gravel roads or the Rail Trail to see what a Gravel Bike can do.
Now, if we could just solve all the world's problems this way...just by riding a bike.
Its been a long and difficult year with the Covid bug, and its not over yet. One thing that kept us sane was being able to get out on hiking trails and in my case, escape the city on the rural roads and trails on the north, south, and west sides of town. I know folks, including a cousin, who have weathered this pandemic in massively urbanized places like New York City and its tough.
So here is a hat tip to having a bicycle and Ma Nature at my beck and call. Now, on to "the first day of fall ride"?
Greetings, cyclists.
At the last BTAC meeting, 3 subcommittees were created, namely:
1) Planning and Fundraising;
2) Law and Policy; and
3) Promotion, Education and Programming.
The above subcommittees will lead in implementing BTAC’s duties and responsibilities below. Each subcommittee can have a maximum of 3 members-at-large. Each subcommittee is chaired by a sitting BTAC member. We need your help. Please email me if you are interested in joining any of the subcommittees above so Councilor Michael Garcia (2nd District) can appoint you at next BTAC meeting scheduled on Oct. 8.
Summary of Responsibilities:
1) Planning and Fundraising (Chair: Sky Tallman, NMDOT Transportation Planner)
a) Assist in the prioritization of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects in the City of Santa Fe.
b) Review preliminary designs of Public Works’ roadways and trails projects at or by 30% design and before plans are presented to the Public for comments or submitted for review to NMDOT.
c) Review and recommend updates to Bicycle Master Plan, Pedestrian Master Plan, Metropolitan Transportation Plan, Parks Master Plan related to trails, and the City’s Land Use Development Code as it pertains to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.
d) Seek funding from city, state, and federal sources to implement bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects prioritized in the Bicycle and Pedestrian master plans.
2) Law and Policy (Chair: Atty. Yolanda Eisenstein)
a) Monitors city and state government changes in ordinances and laws, or shifts in policy that may impact the work of BTAC.
b) Advise on policies, programs, and ordinances as they relate to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.
c) Draft the language for any new policies or amendments to City’s policies, resolutions, and ordinances related to bicycling and pedestrian safety, viability, and user comfort as these affect bicycling and walking as modes of transportation.
3. Promotion, Education and Programming (Chair: VACANT)
a) Develop, review, and advise on media and educational campaigns that provide information and promote bicycle and pedestrian related activities and education.
b) Pursue higher rankings in the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Community designation for the City of Santa Fe, up to and including Diamond level, as well as pursuing any other local, state, or national awards or designations that the City deems worthy of pursuit.
c) Educate the public on the work of the Committee.
For those who did not watch the Sept. 10th meeting, the Law & Policy subcommittee will work on proposing City policies on e-bikes. The Planning & Fundraising subcommittee and Promotion, Education and Programming subcommittee may work on finding solutions to increase safety of underpasses particularly the St. Francis – Cerrillos Underpass as well as sidewalk safety.
Please contact the BTAC if you might be willing to be a member of a BTAC subcommittee. And as always, please e-mail us (rsglorioso-moss AT santafenm DOT gov) if you have any questions and we wish to thank you for all your support of BTAC.
Romella Glorioso-Moss, PhD, AICP
Projects Administrator
Public Works – Roadway and Trails
500 Market St., Suite 200
Santa Fe, NM 87501 T (505) 955-6623
Small check-off on the mental bucket list today. I have been meaning to ride the Santa Fe Rail Trail all the way out to US 285 for a long time, but something always interferes. Short ride plan. Lazy. Not enough water. Not enough reasons to avoid making excuses.
Last weekend I rode out to Spur Ranch Road with the bike on the light wheels and turned around. Yesterday, having goaded myself into doing the full ride, I put the heavier duty wheels, a set of hoops built on LX hubs, 32, 3x Wheelsmith spokes and Salsa Delgado Cross rims shod with 700-40 Xplor MSOs on the bike as I recall the last almost two miles being rough, rocky singletrack. I also filled two water bottles with Gatorade along with the Camelbak full of water to avoid dehydration or running out of water/Gatorade. Off I went.
Note that in the AllTrails link above, they recommend a mountain bike for the dirt portion. I've done the trail on both a double boinger mountainbike and on a cyclecross bike (seen below, a Salsa LaCruz) and prefer the 'cross bike as it is more efficient and I don't think a full on mountain bike is really needed, even for the southernmost couple miles. I do recommend wide off road rubber, for both comfort and control on tight dirt curves where a slide can bring you into the loving arms of a tree or fence. But YMMV and regardless of whether you use a mountain bike or a cyclecross or gravel bike, it will work if you do.
Was a beauty of a day. Not too hot, not too windy. Checked the mental box and had a good time. Round trip about 34 miles (I have to check to see what tires were on the bike when I calibrated the Cateye).
Urban parts of the trail have recently been refurbished with new deck planking on bridges and a nicely paved cut-through on the Rail Trail towards the Acequia Trail near Baca St. Oh, sure, you can shorten the ride 5.5 miles from my house by driving to the Rabbit Road trailhead but really. Load a bike on a car when you have a beautiful paved trail system just about from your doorstep out to the rural trails? Eeeeyewww....
And if you love trails, please support the Santa Fe Conservation Trust with your donation. The Rail Trail is one of their many priceless creations.
Bridge just north of Zia Road crossing
Here the bike has the 700-32 Richey Cross Pro rubber on a Speed City wheelset (from last week's ride)
The cut-through near Baca at Santa Rosa Drive at Monterey is now paved the entire width of the easement
And, speaking of the End of the Line, I couldn't in good conscience use that title for this post without including the original.
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| Acequia/Rail Trail Tunnel. Santa Fe New Mexican photo |
On 25 August, the Santa Fe New Mexican published an article about attacks on pedestrians in and around the pedestrian tunnel crossing St. Francis Drive just north of the St. Francis/Cerrillos intersection. This tunnel provides partial grade-separated connectivity between the segments of Rail Trail on opposite sides of St. Francis Drive and grade separated access to the Acequia Trail from the Railyard. Some commenters responding to the article and at least one Councilor criticized building tunnels due to their seeming to be a magnet for homeless people and the criminal element. So we have a tug of war at play between grade-separated access to the city's bike/ped trail network that reduces car-bike and car-pedestrian conflict vs. designs that sometimes lead to street crime.
But let's not forget that the criminal activities have been in several locations along the Railyard-Acequia Trails alignment, not just in the tunnel. Crime is a bigger problem than an issue due to a tunnel alone. I'd like to see an official, SFPD crime map of Santa Fe to see if this area actually stands out in terms of crime frequency as opposed to being magnified beyond actual risk due to a high profile article in the newspaper. We have seen assaults in other parks and Downtown. My suspicion is that the criminal element sees isolated pedestrians as easy targets, regardless of location and that good trails attract pedestrians, aka targets. Perhaps we need some undercover cops dressed looking like easy marks wandering our trails, aka a Detective Belker.
Now, on to some basic multimodal transportation issues. It is well known in the bicycle-pedestrian design and advocacy community that you cannot expect to have your bicycle transportation system enthusiastically utilized by average citizens (as opposed to "serious cyclists") if it has intimidating choke points on it. These have to be circumvented with good designs. Santa Fe is a city sliced in pieces, bicycle design-wise, by major highways ("principal arterials") that were not designed to effectively accomodate pedestrian or bicycle travel. St. Francis, Cerrillos, and St. Michaels are all fast multilane principal arterials currently controlled by the State of New Mexico Dept. of Transportation and are, in my opinion, designed to move as many cars as efficiently as possible rather than optimizing access to all modes of transportation. There are no bike lanes on St. Francis, for example, a design deliberately approved more than a decade ago by the NMDOT against the wishes of the bicycling community. The St. Francis-Cerrillos intersection is further complicated by the diagonal crossing of the Rail Runner track alignment, which can trap the wheel of a cyclist trying to cross as traffic. Indeed, any at-grade crossing of a major highway by a person on foot or bike is somewhat risky, as the fatal crashes at St. Francis and Zia as well as elsewhere demonstrate. That is why grade-separated crossings on busy principal arterials are strongly recommended in spite of their often considerable cost.
Indeed, at a recent Santa Fe BTAC meeting, a 2018 crash analysis was discussed that pointed out that "... the main contributing factor (to crashes between motorists and bicyclists) is a failure to yield on behalf of both the bicyclist and motor vehicles (33%) and second was driver inattention (19%). Bicycle crashes are predominantly at intersections (64%); incidents are disbursed across town but generally on arterials: Cerrillos Road 45%; Airport Road 17%; St. Francis Dr. 13%; and St. Michael's Dr. 9.4% and primarily on weekdays." Hence the need for safer designs consistent with the Vision Zero concept that one engineers roads to protect against likely human error.
There is a side benefit to motorists in these separated facilities, as they increase motor vehicle level of service, since there is no requirement for a long red light cycle when pedestrians are crossing wide streets if pedestrians have their own right of way. The Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (2009) estimates a speed of 3.5 to 4 feet per second for pedestrians crossing a street but some recent research suggests that is too fast for almost half of older pedestrians and some younger ones. So on a 130 foot principal arterial such as St. Michael's Drive, a pedestrian walk light can stop busy traffic for approximately 37 seconds and this timing may increase as our population ages.
So to make Santa Fe's network of bike-ped trails functional, we need grade separated crossings on principal arterials and highways. How to do it is the question. Tunnels are protected from the weather to some degree and can be compact, since they need only provide enough headspace for people rather than sometimes huge commercial vehicles. Of course a tunnel provides protection against the elements for everyone, including homeless people looking for refuge. Bridges, by contrast, are exposed during foul weather and winter conditions and would require more maintenance during winter weather to provide year round connectivity if snow and ice are present. Furthermore, they can be massive. The Federal Highway Administration requires a minimum of 14-16 feet of overhead clearance for a bridge over an arterial so that large trucks can pass underneath. Meanwhile, the Americans With Disabilities Act stipulates a gradient on ramps no steeper than 1:12 (one foot of rise for every 12 feet of distance). This results in ramps leading to an overhead crossing that could be more than 200 feet long. In an analysis of building a pedestrian bridge over St.Michael's Drive prepared for the State in 2014 by Souder, Miller, and Associates, approach ramps to the overhead structure were listed as being approximately 350 feet long to provide for a bridge with 16' of clearance over the road. So access to a substantial easement is required. The bottom line? Nothing is cheap or without costs as well as benefits and sometimes you need a pretty big hammer to make it fit.
Given the planing for a tunnel at the Rail Trail crossing at St. Michael's drive, which is currently an uncontrolled midblock crossing of a multilane, fast arterial, we need to come to some consensus on whether the city will support these or other designs with enforcement, maintenance, and also to assist in providing better shelter to the homeless. Plus, these are not the only tunnels in town. There are several small but critical tunnels along the Chamisa Trail and one near the Zia station for a spur off of the Rail Trail as well.
Given that our arterial system carves up Santa Fe and impedes bike-ped mobility, grade-separated crossings are necessary to make our trail system work. Tunnels provide advantages in cover as well as space but can also attract a criminal element and the homeless. Bridges require a lot of space, which is sometimes an issue. Neither are cheap. As a cyclist and a citizen of this city, I don't want to see these tunnels turn into something the public fears or despises. And as a cyclist and someone concerned with multimodal transportation, something important to public health, urban planning, and environmental protection, we need to make the bikeway system not only efficient but desirable rather than something putting fear into people's heart. We need to solve this problem.
More reading: The Underpass Dilemma.
Yet more reading.
I saddled up the Salsa La Cruz and took a ride out to Eldorado on the Rail Trail yesterday morning. It was still cool out and the air was not too thick with smoke from the various sundry fires yet. Plus, its a weekday so I dare venture out on the trails, which can be pretty busy on weekends.
So I headed into town and hopped on the Rail Trail at the Railyard. Heading South, the first thing I noticed was that the city has put in a nice paved sidewalk connector where there is an easement to get from the Rail Trail to neighborhood streets near Baca at Monterey and Santa Rosa and connect through to points north and the River Trail. The easement below used to be a narrow right of way, all dirt or mud and a fence on one side where I occasionally cut my knuckles or hit a handlebar riding through. Now its nice, wide, paved, and good to go regardless of the weather.
I also noticed that all the bridges I crossed on the Rail Trail have received new decking. Some of those bridges were in tough shape a year ago. Now they are all nicely decked. This picture is of the bridge just north of the Zia station.
Between the Covid, the drought, the fires, and the bad national politics, its nice to see those not-so-little touches like this. It puts a smile on my face and probably the faces of a lot of other folks who are trying to retain their sanity in these troubled times by getting some air and exercise on our trails. A tip of the hat to the city of Santa Fe for getting these trails gussied up, even as we scrounge the city coffers for funds.
Be safe, be careful, and stay healthy out there. Practice smart social distancing and don't forget that mask or face covering, as appropriate.
Lisa Dougherty gave me permission to post this. Note, the BSC is the LANL Bicycle Safety Committee. I've redacted the name of the injured pending clarification on whether the family wants its privacy.
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I am writing this to you, the co-chairs of the BSC, as a concerned cyclist in Los Alamos. This is not specifically a Lab issue, but since this incident took place in Los Alamos on a route frequently ridden by LANL cyclist employees, I believe the BSC should at least be aware of what happened to determine if a communication should be sent out to the LANL cycling community.
This Saturday, my neighbor stopped by our home to tell us about a very serious accident that almost took the life of her husband. She was worried about the safety of local cyclists due to what her family has been coping with for the last few months. Her situation is extremely disturbing to me, and I wanted to bring it up to you and ask for discussion on how best to protect the local cycling community from increasingly aggressive driving that can and has led to cyclist injuries.
On Wednesday, March 27, my neighbor ( ) headed off on a morning ride of the Grand Loop, something he had been doing about 3 days a week back then. He would start around 6:30am and return to his home in Los Alamos around 9am. However, that Wednesday, 9am came and went and he hadn't returned home, so his worried wife started driving the loop the opposite direction he was riding. She encountered the clean-up of an accident just on the White Rock side of the Bandelier entrance (around mile marker 56), and learned that her husband was to be airlifted to Albuquerque due to the severity of injuries sustained in an accident. As events unfolded, she encountered increasingly concerning inconsistencies. The police told her that ( ) had called 911 to get picked up, yet he was unconscious with serious head injuries when they loaded him into the ambulance. ( ) was on an uphill stretch of the road, going about 10mph, yet the police said that he broke about 12 bones on the left side of his body, including his femur, bones in his face, and a number of ribs, and sustained 2 serious contusions in the brain (even though he was wearing a helmet) because he dropped his chain and fell over. ( )'s trauma doctors and primary care physician say that his injuries were much too severe to have been caused by anything but a high speed collision with a large vehicle.
My concerns are two-fold. First, I believe, due to my own experiences as a cyclist with increasing driver aggression on the road during these stressful times, that this was a deliberate act. Even more so, I fear this was an attempted vehicular homicide. ( ) is a very conscientious rider, so he was riding as far to the road edge as he could, and he was wearing a blinking red light on the back of his helmet. Even if this had been an accident or due to distracted driving, the driver did not stop and render aid to ( ) or at least call 911. ( ) was found, unconscious on one side of the road with his bicycle on the other, by other drivers. His route tracking cyclocomputer was and remains missing. Not only does it seem that many drivers, in general, are taking out their frustrations on cyclists, the most vulnerable of all road users, we know that this driver, who struck a cyclist on a popular route near Los Alamos and then deliberately left the scene with the rider incapacitated on the side of the road, has gotten away with a hit and run with injuries.
My other concern is that the local police are not taking this serious risk to cyclists seriously. And I fear that it goes beyond this event. In this case, the police have decided ( )'s crash was due to him dropping his chain, despite obvious evidence to the contrary, and have issued no accident report and are planning to conduct no investigations. They wouldn't even respond to ( )'s wife until she sent a report of all of ( )'s broken bones to them and asked how his injuries could possibly have been cause by a healthy guy falling over on his bicycle onto soft ground on an uphill stretch. In the same way, I was disturbed by the lack of due diligence of the local police when they worked the motorcycle accident that happened during a group ride I was in a little over a week ago. I was following the woman who hit the rail on the uphill slope out of Ancho Canyon, on the way towards White Rock, and vaulted over the rail and down the 60 foot embankment. I was the first on the scene. I was right behind her, but the police never talked to me. They also only directed traffic on one side of the blind curve. For two hours, I directed traffic on other side to prevent oblivious drivers from barreling onto the accident scene and causing another accident. The firemen were awesome at their jobs, extracting my new friend from her perch on the side of the embankment while protecting her injuries, but the single police officer perhaps did not have enough support to sufficiently handle his responsibilities in the situation.
This bicycle accident has me a little freaked out. I've had more and more drivers going into the bicycle lane to buzz me while I'm hugging the curb. I've had more and more drivers yelling obscenities and threats at me while I'm following the laws and riding around town. I haven't been riding the loop much due to health issues, but this accident and the lack of police follow-through is making me wonder if now isn't a good time to ride on open roads. ( )'s wife suggested that we reach out to local cyclists and ask them to, please, wear cameras recording both forward and backward when they ride, but I worry about how much even this would help since ( ) was knocked unconscious and nobody can find his route recorder computer. Can you please speak about this as a committee and let me know your thoughts? I have a list of ( )'s injuries and can get a statement from his physician about the probability of the injuries being due to a collision with a large vehicle, if that helps.
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Hmmm. I've dropped chains more often than I would like to admit and know of others who have as well. Never ended up in a Medivac helicopter. Be careful out there. And, maybe it is a good idea to get one of those onboard cameras.
“The headline that neck gaiters can be worse is totally inaccurate,” says Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. Publicity like this is worrisome because “it can turn people off of mask wearing, which we know can protect both the individual wearing the mask and those around them,” she says.
Sigh. I'm sure some masks and coverings are more efficient than others, and the wearer has considerable influence too, as I know from the way individuals were tested to fit HEPA masks when I worked in a rad lab. Seems to me that to make sense in this context, a controlled experiment under the conditions of running or biking is in order. Under high exertion, would a tight fitting N95 type mask merely get pushed away from your face by strong exhalation during extreme exertion, creating an exhaust mechanism for droplets? What happens to the viruses, if present, if big droplets get made into little ones and evaporate faster? Do we test under stationary bike and treadmill conditions? And finally, any study has to be peer reviewed.
I think the authors of the study should have known that an uncritical and unscientific press would jump to conclusions and run with this. I'm shaking my head.
Definitely wear something if you are remotely close to other people, and wear the most protective gear appropriate. Stay tuned for updates on good experiments. Above all, use your brain!
New York Times article on gaiter effectiveness.
Thanks to my pen pal Michael Johnson for this link:
Mask Facts, by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
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| One of the smoothest non-paved sections I found! |
Of course the Richeys are also 32 mm wide, so not a whole lot of flotation compared to the recent philosophy of more width is better. And as I found out, the gravel roads are also washboard roads. As in bang-bang-bop-bop-ouch-ouch as you ride over the washing machine.
Maybe next time I'll try it with the 700-40 Donnelly Xplor MSOs at a lower pressure than I ran the Richeys. Or maybe stay on the roads and trails? I'm not sure after this week why the gravel craze is such a craze, but to each his or her own. It certainly was different, and it certainly was nice and quiet out there.
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| Top to bottom: Kate mask, ear warmer, Buff tube, CopperFit tube. Oh, and dog toy |
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| BOO!!! |
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| Take that, you big old hill! View down at The World from Vista Grande Overlook That's a 34x32 low gear. |
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| Never underestimate the value of a tape measure Not to mention, using same. Jersey courtesy of Maddogmedia.com |
