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Archives for June 2013

Rain Riding Tips

06.30.2013 by Ray Niekamp // 1 Comment

bikersintherainHere in Central Texas, mid-summer is a crazy time to write about riding in the rain, since we typically have so little. Still, I was caught in a downpour several weeks ago, so it can happen.

I noticed while riding in that downpour that I am a lot more skittish now when riding in wet conditions than I used to be. That’s because I’ve had some bad experiences in the rain. A couple of falls caused me some injuries, and at my age, it takes longer than it used to to recover from injuries.

So I asked Bike Noob readers to send me their tips for riding in the rain. I got some good ones. Here are the best:

Slow down. This is a no-brainer, I think. But there are good reasons to make this the number one rain riding strategem.

  • Visibility is down. Your glasses get spattered with water.
  • Motorists can’t see you as well.
  • Rain will spread oil residue around before washing it off.

Corner slowly. Take corners slower than usual. This is where I screwed up. In one crash, I turned from an older asphalt surface that absorbed the rainwater, onto a newly resurfaced street where the water stayed on the surface. My front tire slid out from under me. If I had been prepared for this possibility, I would have taken the curve much slower than I did. In the second crash, my rear wheel slid out because I turned too quickly on a wet street (It wasn’t even raining anymore!).

Some experienced riders suggest leaning the bike a lot less than usual when cornering on wet roads. Other riders say this is bunk. But because of my personal experiences, I try to lean my body a bit in a corner, while keeping the bike as upright as possible.

Pump the brakes. Since the brakes work by gripping your rims, you have less stopping power when the rims are wet. So it’s a good idea to allow more time to stop. Pumping the brakes from time to time will squeegee water off the rims. Of course, you should start pumping them early as you approach a stop.

Reduce tire pressure. Letting about 10 pounds out of the tires will increase contact with the road surface. That should give you better control.

One thing that struck me about this advice is that I’m already practicing most of this. I’ve been tripped  up in the past by not stopping to let some air out of the tires if I get caught in the rain. That, along with more cautious cornering, are probably the two most important things I can do to give me greater sense of control while riding in wet conditions.

Oh, and thanks to everyone who sent tips about dressing warmly, equipping the bike with fenders and wider tires, etc. In Texas, few riders I know have “rain bikes.” And since we don’t get a lot of rain, I don’t know anyone who has a set of fenders handy to mount in the event of a shower. I was mostly interested in riding techniques for this post.

But a couple of acquaintances told me they enjoy the rain. “Riding in a torrential downpour is something you won’t forget,” said one. Another recounted a 100-mile ride done mostly in rain. “It was probably not the wisest decision we could have made,” he said, “but in the end, the ride turned out to be epic.”

And whaddya know, overnight we had a pretty good thunderstorm. When I got up early for the Sunday club ride, rain moved in again. I finished breakfast and watched the lightning brighten up the block, and sheets of rain nourish our already-browning lawns. It was a great opportunity to put some of these rain riding tips into practice.

Instead, I invoked my first rule of riding in the rain (which some of you also shared with me) — I don’t. I waited for the rain to end and the roads to dry. Then I went out.

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Categories // Technique Tags // rain

Sleep Deprivation

06.25.2013 by Ray Niekamp // 2 Comments

Sunday morning was a Sunday morning like any other Sunday morning. Well, the dog got me up a half hour earlier than usual to be let outdoors, but that wasn’t a problem. That just meant I could have breakfast a little earlier, which would leave me some extra time to tend to the bike before our club ride. The chain needed lubing, and I would have plenty of time to take care of that.

I ate my scrambled eggs with gusto while reading the news on my iPad, another Sunday morning routine. When I finished eating, I sat back in my easy chair with a cup of coffee, and … and … and………z-z-z-z-z.

Sleepy_OK_214572K2aThe dog barked to be let in. I jerked awake, momentarily disoriented. After letting the dog in, I sat back in my chair again, and this time, I caught myself nodding off.

If I was falling asleep so easily, I wondered how I would do on a 46-mile bike ride.

I tried to snap myself out of it. After all, we had a couple of B riders who had said they wanted to do the ride with me. I tried to concentrate on some of the more enlightening news sites.

Nope. It wasn’t going to happen. I emailed one of the B riders and told him I wasn’t going to make it. Then, I got out of my chair and headed for bed.

My wife, who was up by this time, wondered what was going on. I told her I was skipping the club ride. I was just too tired.

“Oh, that’s okay,” she said. “You can ride with me later. I want to do a Mopac loop.”

That’s her long ride of the week. It’s 13 miles. I told her I figured I could handle it, but I wanted to take a short nap first.

When I woke up, she was next to the bed in her bike clothes.

“Oh!” I said. “I’d better get moving.”

“Too late,” she answered. “I’m just getting home after the ride.”

I looked at the alarm clock. Three hours had gone by since I went back to bed.

“You were out cold,” said my wife.

I’ve never been one to worry about getting eight hours of sleep a night. Six is more the norm for me. Lately, that’s been down to a little over five. It’s obviously caught up to me. I’ll have to cultivate a new bedtime routine. A sleep deprived biker is no biker at all.

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Categories // Odds 'n ends Tags // sleep

Penises, Vaginas, and Bike Fit

06.23.2013 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

I spent Friday evening in a lecture hall on a local college campus, listening to two leaders in bicycle fit science talk about what is known about bike fit. Dr. Andy Pruitt and Dr. Roger Minkow of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine were the presenters, and you knew it was going to be an interesting evening when Minkow said he was here to “change the world one penis at a time.”

Drs. Pruitt (left) and Minkow address the crowd.
Drs. Pruitt (left) and Minkow address the crowd.

Minkow is the man behind the Specialized Body Geometry Romin saddle (Romin is a contraction of the first syllables of his names). He regaled the crowd with tales of measuring cyclists’ private parts to get the best handle on saddle design.

We’ve all heard that you sit on your sit bones. That they’re supposed to hit the wide part of the saddle, and that will make for a comfortable ride. But Minkow said that’s not really the case. He said we sit on the bottom of the pelvic bones, and it’s really more like a rocking chair. So the Romin saddle has a center channel and flares out toward the back. The “rockers” of the pelvic bone sit on the flares just outside the channel.

The process they went through to develop the saddle was the most interesting part of the evening, and drew the most crowd response in the form of giggles and guffaws. Back when they started testing blood flow (down there), Minkow said 50 percent flow was considered a good number. He developed a ring that fastens to the penis and can measure blood flow. Testers put on the contraption, and rode bikes in a lab. Minkow said as they modified their saddle design, they were able to get blood flow up to 75-80 percent in most testers.

“Austin is cool,” he said. “Austin was the first city where we got people to volunteer to do the blood flow test.”

It was one matter to design a saddle that would fit men’s anatomies, but when it came to women, Minkow ran into a problem.

“Where is the vagina?” he asked. The crowd gasped, then giggled.

“Well, yeah, we men know where it is in order to use it,” he added. But in terms of measurement, women aren’t as easy to decipher as men. And they can’t be tested for blood flow. Luckily, there’s a big difference in women and men.

“Ladies can draw a diagram and show every point of pain,” Minkow said. “Men don’t have a clue. They could be at zero blood flow and not be aware of it.”

So a pressure map was created to show where pressure on women — and men — is greatest.

“There is no mid-line pressure on Body Geometry saddles,” Minkow said.

That’s important, because erectile dysfunction can be a reality if you ride improperly or if the bike isn’t set up correctly.

“Bike fit,” said Pruitt, “is about making the bike look like you.”

He compared fitting a bike to buying a suit of clothes. You can go to a store and pick a suit off the rack, and eventually find one your size. But if you were to take that same suit to a tailor, he could make the suit fit you perfectly, rather than acceptably.

Specialized has developed a bike fitting regimen for Specialized based on x,y, and z axes — x and y are the two dimensions visible from the side, but Pruitt says the z axis — viewing the bike from the front — is the difference between the Specialized system and others. Pro cyclists who have been fitted according to that system show notable improvements in power output and time trial times.

The crowd for this event, which was sponsored by Bicycle Sports Shop — one of the biggest bike shops in Austin — was overwhelmingly made up of experienced cyclists. People who appeared to be racers and triathletes sat near me. Some of the questions thrown at Minkow and Pruitt were highly technical, and they did their best to field them in terms everyone could understand.

Both Minkow and Pruitt are on retainer from Specialized, so the evening had the feeling of a commercial for that brand, but overall, the discussion of bike fit and saddle design was worth attending. If the two make an appearance in your area, it’s worth a couple hours of your time.

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Categories // Bike fit, Specialized Tags // bike fitting, saddle

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