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I Don’t Do Resolutions, But…

01.01.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

…I did the Resolution Ride again this year. A local bike shop puts on this New Year’s Day ride from its far north store. It’s an out-and-back of either 25 or 50 miles. Pat and I did it last year, and really enjoyed it, so we decided we’d make a return trip again this year.

The forecast was promising. We’ve had great weather since Christmas, and on December 31st, the high reached 77 degrees (25C). But for New Year’s Day, the prognosticators had a cold front moving through shortly after midnight, with 20 mph winds from the north and plummeting temperatures. The first half of the ride heads north. We prepared for the worst.

The dicey forecast didn’t deter the diehard cyclists in town. Ride organizers told us that 300 riders had registered for the ride — and it looked like most everyone showed up, despite the less than ideal conditions. The 50 milers took off first, then those of us in the 25-mile group.

Part of the 300 riders at the start. (Click pix to enlarge.)

The route is along Parmer Lane northwest of Austin. Parmer becomes Ronald Reagan Blvd. once it leaves the suburbs and gets into open rural land. For most of its length, long rolling hills test cyclists. Coupled with the wind in our faces, the ride out was challenging.

The long rolling hills along Ronald Reagan Blvd.

I was astounded at the number of cyclists who showed up underdressed. Several times, we encountered riders with just t-shirts and shorts — and loose, flapping athletic shorts at that. Some of them realized the folly of their ways, and turned around early to head back to the bike shop, but a substantial contingent stuck with it, and soldiered on into the cold wind.

I found myself moving ahead of Pat and having to wait for her from time to time. We were averaging a whopping 8-9 mph against the wind, and Pat was gasping at the summits of the big hills. One rider who joined us for a breather laughed when I told him the turnaround was at the next intersection, which we could see from where we’d stopped.

“I told my wife the turnaround came here, at the top of the hill,” he said. “She’s going to get here and wonder who moved the cheese.”

Pat: "Take off your sunglasses for the picture, Ray."

It turned out that I was wrong, too. I had glanced at a route map before the start, and saw that the turnaround for the 25-milers was at state highway 29. In fact, it was past that point, at a little side road. We made our turnaround at less than 12 miles.

But we didn’t care. As soon as we headed south, the wind became our friend. The sun warmed our fronts, and we sailed down the road, which was more downhill on the way back than on the way out. At one point, I hit 34 mph on a hill — and probably could have gone faster if my bike hadn’t started acting skittish on me, causing me to slow down a bit.

We pulled into the bike shop’s parking lot, and once again felt the cold north wind hit us. But as any good ride should do, breakfast tacos and coffee (and beer) were available at the finish. We sat in the warmth of the sun, shielded from the wind by the building’s wall.

"Mmmmmm...tacos!"

Pat told me this ride was the longest she’d ridden since at least September. “I don’t care if we only did 23 miles,” she said. “In today’s conditions, it feels like 25, and that’s what I’m going to call it.”

Because I throttled back to stay close to Pat for most of the ride, my average speed was only 12.4 mph. But it was a good ride — with no major mechanicals, unlike last year — except for one that Pat discovered as we were putting the bikes on the car rack. More on that in the next post.

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Categories // Cold weather, Rides Tags // Rides, wind

What’s Black and White and Blocks Wind All Over?

12.06.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 6 Comments

After that no-ride weekend, I was looking forward to getting back on the bike. But being an adopted Texan, I have also become a weather wuss. My friends in Minnesota would be mortified that we tend to avoid riding in what to them seem like mild temperatures. But so it goes.

However, driving home from work today, I resolved that I would get out on the bike regardless of the cold. The dashboard thermostat read 39 degrees (4C), and there was a brisk wind blowing from the northwest. But the sun shone brightly, and by almost any standard, it was a beautiful day.

When I told my wife I intended to ride, she said she’d been bent over her computer keyboard all day, and was up for a ride, too. We started getting into our selection of cold-weather riding gear.

I pulled on a short-sleeved base layer and my long-sleeved jersey with brushed insides. Over that, my windbreaker. This has worked in 40-degree weather in the past, but not in the kind of wind we had today. I decided to rely on a time-honored method bikers use to block the wind: the newspaper.

Fabian Cancellara stuffs a newspaper in his jersey just before starting a descent in this year's Tour de France.

I grabbed a thin section from the morning’s paper that was still lying on our kitchen table, folded it over once, and jammed it down the inside of my jersey. The tight-fitting fabric seemed like it would do a good job of keeping the paper in place over my upper torso.

Pat put on the long-sleeved jersey I got her last month for her birthday. It’s a warmer garment than mine, and the panels over the chest are made of a nylon wind-blocking material. Over that, she layered an old fleece pullover.

We fished out our wool socks, put the toe covers on our shoes, and dug the full-fingered gloves out of the bike stuff box.

“Whoa!” Pat yelled, as we pulled out of our driveway. “Have a little cold!”

At the first stoplight a mile into the ride, we caught up to another cyclist. Pat and he chatted a bit as we all climbed a long gentle hill, and then he passed me and took off.

“He wasn’t going to let an old woman on a hybrid stay even with him,” Pat laughed. “But he did say he thought this was the nicest biking weather of the year. He must be from the Midwest.”

On the way back, we were dead into the wind. Aside from making my eyes tear, which I hate when I’m building speed on downhills, it didn’t have any effect on what I was wearing. The layer of newspaper was doing its job.

While waiting at a red light, though, Pat complained that her tights weren’t thick enough to protect her thighs. They were cold, and that made the arthritis in her hip flare up. She soldiered through the discomfort and we got home before the sun set.

Inside, I dug the newspaper out from my jersey. It was a bit damp, but not wet. It had done its job of blocking the wind nicely, although by the time we finished the ride, it had slipped lower on my chest and shifted over to the side a bit. Still, a successful experiment.

Closed cell foam is often used by campers as sleeping pads.

Our club president has his own variation on the newspaper as wind blocker: bubble wrap. Well, that’s what he calls it, but it’s really a thin layer of closed-cell foam. He cuts generous squares off a roll and fits them over his torso under his jersey. He likes to tell the rest of us on our Sunday club rides how comfortable he is in cold and windy weather. I used to pooh-pooh his foam trick, but after my experience with the newspaper I think he might be on to something.

Have you ever resorted to newspapers or foam or something else to keep you comfortable on a ride?

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Categories // Accessories, Cold weather Tags // wind, winter riding

Those @#$%&! Cross Winds!

04.10.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 7 Comments

The wind has been relentless this spring, mostly blowing from the south. I’ve been trying to plan my routes so that I’m heading more or less into it on the way out, and with it on the way back, to get a little relief.

But Saturday, I joined a small group ride in a different part of town from my usual haunts. The road we would mainly ride was Bee Caves Road — which goes roughly east-west, and features lots of long hills.

It’s a lot of fun to ride in decent weather. But I hadn’t thought about the key feature that would affect us this time — the wind was going to be hitting us crosswise, not head on.

Just a few minutes into the ride, we were heading east on a nice downhill, when pow! the wind smacked me and moved the bike toward the traffic lane. It was unsettling. Bee Caves Road is four lanes wide, with an added center lane. The speed limit is 65. Traffic is usually steady. Yipes! If that wind was going to have the potential to knock me into traffic, it could be a ride with an unhappy outcome.

Cross winds are funny (not funny ha-ha, but funny hmm). If the wind was steady, it wouldn’t be a problem. Leaning a bit to the side toward the wind — like the riders in the picture — seems to help.

It’s the gusts that get you. How do you maintain control of your bike when it’s being buffeted from the side?

A quick check of the interwebs doesn’t turn up much help. Most of the advice about riding in cross winds applies to racers, and tells them to form an echelon. Although I was in a small group — maybe eight people — there was no way we would be able to stay packed tightly enough to form an echelon. I doubt any of us would know how to. I spent most of the ride on my own anyway, with a few riders well ahead of me, and the rest trailing by a large distance.

My reaction was to slow down. I was not comfortable riding on a shoulder — even a generous one like  the ones on this road — if I was going to get pushed one way or the other. But some advice I’ve seen says your stability will improve as you pick up your speed. For example, instead of coasting those downhills as I was doing, the advice is to pedal. By applying some power to the rear wheel, you’ll become more stable.

Gack. I was hitting speeds above 30 mph on the downhill stretches, and getting smacked by a gust at that speed can be pretty unnerving. That’s why I slowed down.

A commenter on one of the biking forums I visit said, “It takes a while to get used to the idea that getting blown around some is OK.” Yeah, I’m not there yet. But I’m sure I’ll have lots more times to try, the way the weather is going lately.

Others say to relax, especially in the elbows and upper body. One commenter suggested that unlike headwinds, when you want to minimize drag by keeping your body in an aero position, a better strategy in a cross wind would be to sit upright. That makes “holes” in your profile to allow wind to pass through.

I won’t be seeking opportunities to ride in cross winds, but I’m sure they’ll come. I’ll remember to relax, enjoy getting buffeted, and stay close to the right side of the shoulder. In the meantime, I’ll be glad I don’t regularly ride in the conditions this Dutch cycling team had to contend with earlier this year. The travails of the guy 48 seconds into the video are a hoot. Click the YouTube button to watch it in a larger size – and perhaps a smoother speed.

“Ja, Michael, you have the lightest bike!”

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Categories // Technique, Tips Tags // wind

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