a salmon of doubt

Now that Google Maps has released an official API, people are doing all sorts of interesting and cool things with it. People come up with things you never even dreamed of.

Since I do a fair bit of cycling and sometimes want to plan routes for a certain distance, this web application I found is rather handy: the Gmaps Pedometer. You do have to follow the “Click here if you don’t live in Hoboken” link for a start, though… unless, of course, you do live in Hoboken…

You can also create linkable/bookmarkable URLs for future reference. As an example, this is the route I rode with the bike club this evening after work.

This is definitely going to be a useful little app, and I have serious respect for the folks who cooked up that use for Google Maps.

I’ve been giving some continued thought to bike commuting over the weekend, trying to figure out how much money (if any) I’d want to put into acquiring and outfitting a used mountain bike—I’m certainly not going to ride my expensive road bike to work or the store and leave it locked up on a cheap rack. That, and the skinny tires aren’t ideal for handling in inclement weather. Also, all the stuff that would be getting attached to the commuter bike would add weight and make the road bike less useful for what it’s best suited to—going fast.

The downside is that I live close enough to work that from a purely financial perspective, it’s hard to justify buying and outfitting a bike for commuting/long distance touring. I’m keeping my car so I’ll still have maintenance costs and insurance for that, and since I live so close to work I would spend less than $400 per year on gas to get back and forth even when gas hits $3 per gallon. (I say “when” because it’s pretty much inevitable that it will do so eventually, maybe even this year…)

Meanwhile, I figure that to properly outfit a commuter bike would require the following:

• Mountain bike frame


• Anything not already attached/included with the frame (wheels/tires/drivetrain components/handlebars/etc)


• Rear rack, panniers to attach to rack as needed


• Lighted rear flashers/reflectors to alert motorists


• Front headlights w/ battery pack for riding when it gets dark early


• Shimano SPD clipless pedals (at least I already have the shoes)


• Various locking implements


• Disc brakes, as any older MTB I bought would be unlikely to have them already, and they stop much better in poor conditions

And that doesn’t even get into any of the gear that would be useful if I started winter commuting, such as appropriate cold-weather clothing—there wouldn’t be THAT much required, but there’d be enough and a lot of it would be somewhat pricy to initially acquire.

Put it all together and while it wouldn’t be a big hit all at once, it would definitely come to more than $400. I’m guesstimating it could end up around $750 for the components. I suppose it’d pay itself off within 2-3 years, though, and more importantly, there’d be a lot of health benefits to be gained from it… so it’s kind of a toss-up.

It could also be a nice habit to get into; I eventually hope to move to a bigger city (Columbus and Cincy are at the top of my list right now, but I’d consider other places too) and when I do I would probably try to find an apartment reasonably close to my job. Anything within 5-10 miles would be pretty reasonable to ride (I can do 7-8 miles in ~30 minutes as it is) and in rush-hour city traffic, it might not be that much faster to drive anyway.

So in addition to trying to decide if I’m masochistic enough—and the jury’s still out on that one—I’m also trying to decide if I want to spend the money. Having a reputation at work as the guy who’s hardcore enough to ride in through 15F temperatures and several inches of snow could be kind of amusing, though…

I’ve been reading a couple of interesting web sites lately—IceBike and Chicago Bike Winter, both of which deal with people who are nutty enough to ride their bikes in the dead of winter—even when there’s a few inches of snow on the ground. From what I’m reading, it’s not as bad as you’d expect—the exertion from cycling keeps you warm enough once you get moving, and when the roads are bad traffic is usually pretty docile.

I’ve been thinking about getting a decent “beater” mountain bike—something that doesn’t look so hot and is therefore thief-resistant, but mechnically sound—to commute to work on anyway. It’s only about 2 1/2 miles, so I’d definitely get some fitness benefit from it, and for light grocery shopping there’s a Kroger that’s kinda-sorta in between home and work anyway. With gas over $2 per gallon and most of my driving being to/from work-Kroger-home, it would save me some money every month, too. I don’t plan on giving up my car, but using it more for longer distance/heavy traffic areas/larger grocery trips would probably be a more efficient use for it.

It’s something that I guess I’ll think about. I haven’t decided yet if I like pain and suffering that much.

Spring finally arrived this week, so Monday I got my bike down to the bike shop for some routine maintenance. I was fortunate enough to get it back the same day, so of course I had to go out for a ride that evening. For future reference, though, I probably shouldn’t go riding right before dinner—halfway through I started feeling pretty crappy and extremely hungry.

Rode with the bike club on Wednesday night, but it was the “family fun ride” and the pace was a little slow for my liking. Also went on a short ride Thursday night, which wasn’t the smartest thing to do since it was kind of cold. But I really wanted to test my new clipless pedals.

Saturday was fun and exhausting at the same time. A friend and I from work went up to North Baltimore to ride the Slippery Elm rail trail from there up to Bowling Green and back—the round trip is just shy of 27 miles. Around 22 miles in, we both “hit a wall” and it got really hard to keep going, but since the car was still five miles away we didn’t really have a choice so we just gutted it out. I was pretty tired when we got back, but after an hour or so the runner’s high—or the cyclist’s high, in this case—kicked in and I was feeling really good.

Jumping from 5-6 mile rides earlier this week straight to a 27 mile ride probably wasn’t the smartest idea, but then again, at least I should be able to hack the bike club’s bi-weekly fitness rides now; usually those are only 15 to 18 miles, although they do push the pace a little harder usually.

Now here’s hoping the aloe lotion does its job and makes my arms stop hurting so much; it’s still early in the spring so I didn’t really think much about sunscreen. Apparently 2+ hours in bright sunlight, even when the UV index isn’t supposed to be really high, is enough to give you sunburn. I definitely need to make sure to pick up some sunscreen before I ride again; no reason to let my skin burn or tan any further if I can help it.