Full moon TNUA
Monday was the official full moon, but last night was certainly close enough. That we could see the moon should tell you something. First, that we Rochesterians feel insecure when we’re not protected from the cosmos by a thick blanket of overcast, and second, that it was cold.
It wasn’t arctic as it’s been for other parts of the country this week, but last night’s 28°F (-2°C) was significantly colder that things were for last week’s ride when the mercury dipped to only 48°F (9°C) after a sunny 57°F (14°C) day.
And still, 39 riders showed up for the Tuesday Night Urban Assault ride.
I spent the meeting-up time checking out what people were wearing. It’s my first season and figuring out how to dress is a challenge sometimes. My problem is that I usually dress too warm. It’s a knee-jerk reaction from having Raynaud’s and generally doing nothing more in the past than sitting or standing when outdoors.
Most of the riders, of course, wear bicycling-specific gear—the idea of which doesn’t really appeal to me.
- There’s the part that responds Henry David Thoreau’s cautionary dictum, “Beware of enterprises that require new clothes…”
- Then there’s my budget, which is not large enough to support multiple pairs of $50 shorts and $75 jerseys. The prices for winter gear are simply breathtaking.
- Storage, or more accurately, the absence of same
- All the additional laundry—and separate loads for the different fabrics—that it creates
- And finally, the United States seems to be the only country in the world that seems to think you can’t ride a bicycle in regular clothing. We’re wrong about the metric system, so I’m thinking we may be wrong about this too.
In any event, for whatever their own reasons, it seems like 10% to 20% of the TNUA riders each week also aren’t sporting team kit or labels like Louis Garneau, Pearl Izumi, Assos, Gordana, Canari, et. al. These are the people I pay attention to (well, with the exception of this one really cute guy.)
Last night I added a fleece between my long and short-sleeved t-shirts and Gore-Tex raincoat/windbreaker on the top, and broke out the waffle longjohns under my jeans for the bottom. A single pair of socks, my Thinsulated Gore-Tex hiking boots, Do-Wrap winter cycling beanie and Cannondale Windfront gloves completed the ensemble.
This compares to cargo shorts, sneakers and long and short-sleeved t-shirts last week, or, more temperature appropriate, last year it would have been my hooded arctic parka, snowboarder’s mittens, sweater and two pairs of socks.
And I was still too warm and had to leave my shirts out to dry before tossing them into the laundry.
I also check out equipment. Road bikes are disappearing as riders bring out their winter bikes. We were down to just two fixies this week as two other fixie riders brought their MTBs. By my ear, only one other rider had studded snows on. Interestingly, it was one of the fixies. That makes an interesting sound, BTW, pedaling then slowing a fixie with studs.
Seeing all the different bikes week-in and week-out, I’ve really come to appreciate the clean lines of the classic steel road bikes from the 70s and early 80s. I like the level top tube and short rear triangle.
The current fashion of oversized tubes and compact geometry just looks overweight and chunky to my eye. Of course, I have to include my bike in that category, and it’s made worse by the suspension fork.
It’s also interesting to see the changes in lighting as the season goes on. There were fewer HIDs and halogens last night and more LEDs. One exception being this one chick who, like me, seems to be right at the edge of affordability.
She started with no lights, got a cheap rear blinky, showed up the following week with a better rear blinky. Then added a cheap LED headlight (like my first one), then tried duct-taping flashlights to her bars, which actually worked better than the cheap LED headlight.
Last night she showed up with a brand new helmet-mounted 10-watt halogen. And a big smile.
Anyway, the ride…
Scott announced at the start that we’d be taking it easy this week because heavy training every week wasn’t good. This seemed to suit everyone just fine.
I was particularly relieved to hear it since I’m still adjusting to the snow tires. There’s a huge increase in rolling (and therefore pedaling) resistance. You’ve heard me complain before about cycling in gravel? Well these make it seem like cycling in sand. My speeds are down 20% across the board, which translates to two or three cogs at the same cadence generally, or the same cogs, but in the granny ring.
I rode most of the night, last night, in the granny ring. Cross-chaining be damned, it was a lot easier than jumping back and forth between it and the middle ring. And with only rain so far this season, there are already little rust spots on the rings. I’m planning to replace them with aluminum ones in the spring anyway.
While flats were repaired, we spent a lot of time meandering through the lot and the lawn, then circling the block at this church at the corner of Ford and Adams.
Just to the right of center is the recreation center where the ride meets. Below that is the circle where we do our warm-up laps before setting out. Well, looking at it now, I guess it’s more of an oval.
This was less successful on the streets. It caused the group but bunch up tighter (and wider) still. But the meandering in the parking lots stretched the group out to single file just nicely. And the view from the back of the line of a long line of blinkies snaking to and fro’ was just beautiful.
Back on the street, it was more bunching. This time largely due to having to stop for traffic before turning. When we turned left on Exchange heading downtown, I was hopeful that we’d cruise Main St looking at the lights. But no, we turned off at Corn Hill Commons, briefly terrorizing pedestrians and shopkeepers before portaging on the stairs at the north end to the wharf side and the Riverway.
It’s tough to bunch up on that section of the Riverway given the brick retaining wall on the right and the river on the left. No rails here either since it is, after all, a wharf. We circled in the court south of the commons for a good bit. We barely fit single-file through there. Single-file was enforced by everyone riding the foot of pavement between the lampposts and the lawn. Meanwhile, we counted off as we rode, or “Tuna on a roll,” as someone described it.
Then it was off up the Riverway, and our first encounter with ice, under the Ford St bridge. At the first callout of “ICE!” everyone grabbed the brakes, which meant I had to as well or run into them. So my first ride on a three-foot patch of ice was coasting at about 5 MPH. Not terribly exciting, but no one went down either.
This lead to another admonishment from Scott when we regrouped in the parking lot just south of the bridge. “When I called out ‘Ice’,” he scolded, “all I heard behind me was brake levers. I should never hear that on ice. That’s how you crash. It was pure luck, plain and simple that there wasn’t a 30 bike pile-up back there.
“Just like in the wet or on leaves,” he continued, “you have to stay relaxed and loose on ice. Remember that dynamics and the laws of physics makes a bike want to stay straight and upright all by itself.
“Crashes are caused be people reacting poorly. Don’t jump on the brakes. Don’t crank the bars. Don’t get all tense. Just keep riding nice and smooth and loose, and your bike will pull you through safely.”
Then it was across the street to a little linear park in the old railbed. There, we found what’s quite possibly the world’s smallest crit loop. Barely 100 feet from one end to the other, it has two little hills, one of which has a 90° corner covered in leaves at the bottom, and there’s a nice bend at the top of the other. It’s sort of kidney-shaped too, so there’s one right turn in it to keep us from getting dizzy.
The world’s smallest crit loop is right about center. You can see its right half. The left half is obscured by the trees. Across the street from it is one of the parking lots where we circle and regroup. You can also see the Riverway trail on both sides of the river.
At the top, the satellite image shows the intersection of Ford and South Plymouth before it was replaced by the roundabout that’s traced-in over it by the map.
Of course, put A riders on a crit loop, and some competition is to be expected, even when there’s no room to pass. Corner-cutting became the strategy, which probably caused the only crash of the night, at the bottom of the leaf-covered hill, an A rider went down, taking the guy behind him too. No one was hurt, no bikes damaged. How could they be? They fell in a leaf pile at single-digit speeds.
Nonetheless, this lead to another admonishment from Scott. And with another reminder about the ice, we crossed the street and went back down the Riverway. Past the Ford St bridge, it was again with the meandering. This time, left off the trail, through the grass and around a tree, back across the trail, more grass and another tree, repeat for a half-mile. By the time everything got stretched-out and single-file, it looked like one of those Christmas card photos with the skiers carrying flares. I’d have liked to see that in a satellite photo.
But, I don’t do lawns. Plus the bike has a fit and throws its chain when I do. I just sort of waited at the end and followed along on the pavement. Plus, my halogen was fading, due to the cold. The sub-freeezing temperatures knocked 50% off my battery time.
So I headed home.
By the numbers
- 39 riders
- 2 flats
- 1 crash
- 0 injuries
- 01:25:16 ride time
- 15 miles
- 10.5 avg MPH
- 22.3 max MPH
- 58 RPM avg cadence
- 109 RPM max cadence
- 4,950 crank revolutions
Note: Average cadence and crank revolutions are low due to my boots sliding the cadence magnet inward on the crank, out of range of the pickup. Not sure how long it was before I noticed.
