Riding on borrowed time - doh!

I was wearing through the back tire (Clement X'Plor MSO) on the Vaya fairly quickly, getting more pavement than gravel/dirt riding on it lately.  I skidded on it once or twice, too, which didn't help. Had a couple flats.  Then I noticed a little green showing through the tread, which I figured was part of the tire.

hmm...that green should look familiar...

I looked at various replacement tires in the 38mm + range like the Bontrager LT or H2, the various Schwalbe Marathons, Panaracer Pasela/Crosstown/Ribmo, Vittoria Randonneur, and the Clement X'Plor USH.  Maxxis has some promising looking tires in their Urban line. 

I decided to stick with the Clement X'Plor MSO (40-622).  I like how they handle, they grip nicely in the corners and over the gravel and debris in the street. And they match the front tire, which has plenty of miles left on it. I ordered the 60 tpi version instead of 127 tpi, thinking the 60tpi might last longer.  They're less expensive, too

First the question was, "would the new tire arrive before my old tire blew out"?

Then the tires arrived before the tire blew, a couple days went by, and the question became "will I get the tire actually put on before a blow-out?".  I'm not on real good terms with the rear derailleur, so I kept putting it off.  I tend to procrastinate. In the meantime, I tried to stay off busy streets.

I finally got them on last weekend.  Remember that green spot?  Turned out it was a Skab patch.  Somehow forgot that I'd run over a staple which left a little flap in the tire. I'd patched the tube with a Skab and glued the flap down.  Which eventually tore off. Doh! 

So lesson learned - sometimes it's best to replace the tire after a flat instead of gluing it back together. And do it pronto.

Alberta St. to NW Blvd

I usually ride down the wider left lane on the one-way section of Alberta between Driscoll and Northwest Blvd on my way to work. The funny thing about this left lane that was made wider for bikes - not many cyclists want to turn from the left lane onto NW Blvd.

I turn left onto Euclid a block before NW Blvd, preferring not to turn left with the two lanes of traffic. I make my way to Hemlock where I cross NW Blvd between the Chase Bank and Java Jitters.  I can either go east on NW Blvd to Belt or ride past the barrier where Hemlock is blocked off, and go south.

Other bikers like to ride down the right lane on Alberta and turn left onto NW Blvd, which I tried again last week.

The only problem I have with this, is I've seen drivers swerve over from the left turn lane, cross the right lane all the way to the right turn lane to TJ Meenach Drive.  I feel like I might get in the way of one of those drivers who forgot they need to be in the right lane. But my wife prefers going this way, as  she doesn't like to cross the 5 lanes of NW Blvd.  Well, there have been some vehicle/pedestrian collisions on NW Blvd.  She says she feels comfortable owning the lane and feels it's natural to go the way she would if driving.  Me, I don't like to turn left onto NW Blvd, but have no problem crossing the 5 lanes at Hemlock. Go figure.  I did feel this time that I rode the right lane that drivers were aware of me, though.

Below: Past the intersection.  A neighbor woman I work with also bikes this way and will take the sidewalk. A good option which I also take sometimes, with cars going by at 35+ mph.

So there you have it - NW Blvd two ways.

When I was a kid...

Growing up in Ephrata way back in the 60's and 70's, we kids rode our bikes everywhere. It's a small town maybe 2 miles long.  There was only one adult that I remember, the father of some kids a few blocks away from our house, who rode his bike to...work.  And most everywhere else in town.  It seemed odd to me.  Nobody else's dad did that.

Now it doesn't seem so different and I'm one of those guys who bikes to work.  It's great to see more grown-ups bike commuters than when I was a kid.

But it still feels a bit different sometimes to bike commute. When I broke a bone in my hand biking to work last year, a couple people actually asked me if now I was going to grow up and stop biking.  They weren't joking. I was taken aback and didn't know what to say. (Thankfully, I don't know too many people like that).  I never thought of biking as something you grow out of.  I more or less grew back into it.

That neighborhood kid's dad was onto something.

Avid BB7 Road disc brakes (Off the Beaten Path brake test)

The Salsa Vaya I ride the majority of the time has Avid BB7's which have great stopping power in varied weather conditions.  So I was surprised to read this statement over at Off the Beaten Path in "How to Brake on a Bicycle" (in the comments section, by the post author Jan Heine. The comments were closed by the time I read the post):

Based on our experience, at least the common Avid mechanical “road” disc brakes (BB7 “road” model) have much less stopping power than a good rim brake. We have tested a number of bikes with different rotors and pads, even had a local expert fiddle with one of the test bikes, but there was little difference. The brakes feel great at first, but as you pull harder on the levers, you only get flex in the brake mechanism, but no more braking power.

Bill Davidson has a nice little demonstration. He takes a bike with those brakes, pulls the lever for the front brake to the bars, and then pushes the bike across the shop floor. The wheel continues to turn. He then takes a bike with a rim brake, and the wheel won’t turn.

So I went to my bike, pulled on the front brake lever, pushed the bike, and voila! the front wheel didn't turn.  It sounds like Mr Davidson's demonstration is with BB7's, but perhaps from the wording "these brakes" the blogger just means generic disc brakes.  I didn't have to pull all that hard.  Either way, I'm wondering am I or they missing something?

I don't have any experience with good rim brakes except for the cantilevers on my good cross bike, so I can't compare the two types of brakes much.  But my experience is that the BB7's have more than adequate stopping power.  I especially like being able to grasp the brake levers easily from the hoods without applying too much force in order to stop quickly.  And I hate fiddling with and adjusting rim brakes, so I prefer the disc brakes.

The main thrust of this article was that their experiments found that "on dry pavement,  the front brake alone halts the bike over the shortest distance."  It's a little hard to tell just how scientific their tests are.  Their is an interesting exchange in the comments section between Robert Hurst, the author of The Art of Cycling (formerly the Art of Urban Cycling) and Mr Heine where Hurst challenges the findings and says his experiments have found the shortest stopping distance was with both brakes.  I think everybody does agree that you get the most stopping force from the front brake.

(Hurst's website is The Industrialized Cyclist and he has tons of info on his Bicycle Research page.)

Post Street

Since my ride home often takes me down Post Street, I've been wondering how the city was going to manage the connection between Riverfront Park and the new Centennial Tail section that will pass under the Monroe Street Bridge on its way through Kendall Yards.  I know slowing down to turn left onto Bridge St from Post can be dicey if there's traffic bearing down on you from behind.  

The Getting There column in Monday's Spokesman Review details plans to turn Post Street between Falls Blvd and Bridge Street into a one-way northbound street with a 12 foot wide bike lane on the east side of the Street Bridge.  There was also an open house (8/19 Getting There) last week  but I missed it.  There will be angled parking in front of City Hall; Post north of Bridge street will be still be two-way but with two lanes and a center turn land instead of the 4 lanes now and there will be parallel parking spots on both sides of the street.  I'm not clear if the bike lane is only on the bridge, or if it's from the Blvd to Bridge St.

This is how it looks now:

Sometimes impatient traffic behind will pass me, (you know they're in a hurry to get to the stoplight at Broadway).  I might feel a little bad about slowing down traffic, riding outside of the door zone.  Then one day I noticed the 20 mph speed limit sign halfway down the block across from the Avista building.  Now I don't care if I'm slowing down anybody since I'm usually going 15-20 mph here, and motorists should be going slower in this section anyway.  Especially with all the foot traffic.  I've been thinking the limit on Spokane Falls Blvd and streets in the downtown core should be 20-25mph also.

See the seldom noticed 20mph sign?

the weight restricted bridge

The street narrows here, so a one way might widen the lane a bit.

Past the Bridge, on Lincoln St.

This sounds like a good plan, I'm interested to get more details on it, hopefully next week.  I figure depending on my mood, in order to go west I'll either take the Centennial Trail or go up to Broadway.  It'll be good to have another option.

bringing home the...er, chicken

My wife was out of town for a couple days so this meant I was on my own for dinner.  Not that I can't cook or don't share in the nightly dinner duties (he says somewhat defensively), even if that means going out to get Chinese or Mexican or heating up some frozen box of processed food stuff.  But I usually take the opportunity when Debbie's away to eat something that she doesn't like.  Like  greasy KFC or Skippers; her coworkers usually take bets on which one I'm going to get.

I do love deep fried seafood, but the Colonel won out this time. Besides, for a while my bike ride home took me behind Skippers; I got sick of smelling that Skippers Grease and the thought of it still makes me feel queasy.
I almost went through the drive-thu at KFC on my bike, but instead took it inside and ordered the 3 piece dinner.  There's probably a thousand reasons not to eat at KFC; luckily I think I'm finally burnt out on it.  I might have to actually eat something healthy next time she's away.

Bitterroot Loop - Avery to Spokane

Lets see, where was I before we were so rudely interrupted by the Midnight Century?

In my mind the ride from Wallace to Avery is taking on epic proportions, the impossibly rough ride on Pasela tires, the urgency I felt as night fell to get to Avery even though I had all the supplies needed to camp anywhere. But really, it was just a good long ride.

Leaving Avery, I was a bit more relaxed.  I stocked up on fresh water at the little store there, talked to some Forest Service guys who were also heading out for the day.

Outside of Avery the scenery continued to be beautiful.

It was going to be another warm day and I considered taking off my helmet.  But then I thought if I come across a bear, maybe it would help to have a little extra head protection because who knows how long it would take me to find the bear spray. Also, I remembered how easy it is for me to crash just riding along and hit the ground hard, so I opted to keep the lid on.

Below is one of the Milwaukee Road signs somewhere along the way.  At first I couldn't figure why the maps were so high up as to be impossible to read, until I figured out they were up there that high for snowmobilers.

About 7 miles past Avery there is a bridge over the river to the St Joe Ranger District office.  I didn't check it out because I was still in catch-up mode.  Maybe 6 miles more I came to a paved road and the trail ended. (I figured out later it is the St. Joe River Road).  There was a sign for the Milwaukee Road pointing back the way I came but nothing telling me if I should go left or right.  I went right and over a bridge over the river, and then took a left onto a dirt road signed as Potlatch Rd.  It followed the river, so I figured it must be the right way.

Tunnel 37, The Herrick Tunnel:

Unidentified biker hanging around the tunnel:

A few miles later I arrived in Calder, and a sign said the Bridge ahead was closed by Order of the Sheriff, or by the County.  Maybe both.  There was a store there that I almost went in to ask if it was passable, but then I thought about it.  The sign didn't say the bridge was out, just that it was closed.  I was a little determined to stay on the Milwaukee Road, so I rode on to check it out.

Sure, there were some planks missing, and a lot of charred wood from a fire, but I walked a few feet out on it. It seemed like it would hold me, and maybe my bike and bags, too.

And it did. The creek below didn't look too deep, so if you're unsure of the bridge you could probably cross the creek instead.

This is looking back after crossing the bridge.  I thought maybe this was a campground at first, but it was probably somebody's piece of land.  Nobody seemed to be around, or didn't care what I was up to.

Just beyond the bridge the trail became a little sketchy, but I made it through without any flats.  In the distance you can barely see another barricade blocking off a smaller bridge.

A few miles further was this interesting old steel bridge:

Maybe a few miles past the bridge there was an intersection that had me confused as to which way to go, but I continued on along the road as it followed the river.

It was maybe 15 more miles of pedaling on dirt and gravel road before I reached St. Maries.  I biked around a bit, looked for the bike shop there but didn't see it.  Parked myself at a grocery store with a Zips in the parking lot.  Then, after turning my phone off and on I finally discovered there was cell phone service there, and I texted Debbie to let her know where I was. It was Sunday afternoon now, and I pondered if I wanted to go further.  I thought it was about 30 miles to Heyburn Park on Highway 5, and back in Kellog the guy at the bike shop told Eric and I that it was a death trap.  So I got me a root beer float and a burger at Zips.  Then Eric called, said Heyburn was only 5 - 7 miles away and he had a camping spot.

Feeling refreshed, I hit the road again.  The road wasn't as bad as the bike guy said it was, and there was a little bit of shoulder with gravel sometimes off to the side to ride on.

Back to Chatcolet Lake:

Eric had a great spot for camping that was on the hill above the parking lot.

Wrapping this up - we left early the next morning and made our way on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alene's to Plummer and then over a pass to Fairfield.

looking back at Plummer

I forget just which roads we took back to Spokane. Stopped in Fairfield, talked to some of the locals. Took a break at the Freeman store and got an ice cream cone.  I was hoping to lose a few pounds on this trip, but I think I managed to consume as many calories as I burned.

looking more like Spokane area

We rolled into Spokane's South Hill around 1:00 or 2:00 maybe.  Eric and I are both thinking we might have to ride this again, with an extra day or two to explore some of the many side trail and roads along the way.

I used to get embarrassed when people would introduce me to others as a strong cyclist. I think of the roadies who are actually in good shape and ride fast, or the other cyclists who ride long distances as the strong bikers.  I tell them I'm just good at working the gears, finding an easy gear and spinning, not working too hard at it. Now, after this ride and the Midnight Century, I don't think I'll be embarrassed if called a strong biker. I know I'm not real strong, but I seem to manage ok.