While riding into work this morning, all alone since no one else seemed to have a desire to ride in 40 degree weather, I began reviewing the things that I have learned about commuting.  I have been commuting regularly to work now for two months.  The things that I have learned have been through conversations, research, and personal experiences.  I decided to comprise a list of things that are important when commuting by bike.  These are in no certain order.

In terms of preparation

• Be prepared for the workout… always carry water or other hydrant and USE it.  When it is cold, you may not sweat or may think you are not sweating. Either way, you can still get dehydrated.  Do not subject yourself to cramps or worse due to improper hydration.
• Be prepared for flats… they will happen.  There are different schools of thought on this matter.  You could repair them, and though it is tedious and time consuming, some people swear by it.  I, on the other hand, am partial to carrying spare tubes.  They take up more space and weigh more than patch kits, but I find it a much easier, more permanent solution.  Road bikes are more prone to flats than hybrids or mountain bikes, but they all can get flats!  Have a set of tire levers on hand - they are cheap and indispensable.  Make sure you have a way to put air in the tire.  I prefer CO2 cartridges, but realize I also keep my tires at 130psi.  It is easier to pump up tires that require lower PSI.  Portable air pumps are easily mountable or are small enough to fit in a back pack or jersey pocket.
• Be prepared for night… it is inevitable.  It is better to leave work with enough time to complete your commute home before darkness hits, but sometimes it sneaks up on you.  As the year progresses, along with daylights savings, night comes sooner.  If you have a long commute, like me (20 miles each way), it has a greater impact.  If I leave my desk at 5pm, by the time I get suited and leave, I don’t have enough time to get home before dark.  Don’t forget that rainy days bring dark skies as well.  The key here is not seeing, but being seen.  Have a white front light, preferably blinking.  Have a rear red light, also blinking.  I also have a blinking red strobe on my back pack so people see it at eye level.  Have reflective shoes - since your feet are always moving, they have a better chance of catching someone’s eye.  It is a good idea to have a white light on the front of your helmet as well.  While a white light on your bike shows your direction, a light on your helmet can also catch someone’s eye because your head is constantly moving.  Don’t wait until it is dark to mount or turn on your lights, turn them on if it is even remotely possible it may be dark before you finish your ride.
• Be prepared for exhaustion… long days at work can creep up on you, even at desk jobs.  I carry Gu packets in my backpack just in case, but any carbohydrate formula will do.  There are different types. Ones that provide a lot of calories and others that provide sugars.  Getting caught on a commute with no energy to finish the ride is a bad deal.  Fatigue leads to bad judgement which leads to accidents.
• Be prepared for isolation… if you get into a situation where you are stranded, invariably, it will be in a place where it is too far to walk and is not well traveled.  Carry a cell phone.  I can’t stress this enough.  There are countless situations you can get into on a ride home where a simple phone call can be the resolve.  Even though you can’t really talk on it while riding, leave it on.  If you were to wreck, or something worse, you can be found by your cell phone signal.  I never commute without one.

In terms of gear

• Dress for current and possible weather.  It is easy to wrap yourself up in multiple layers to prepare for a cold morning’s ride.  Remember, the morning commute is only half of the trip.  Be aware that the evening may be much warmer, or it could be raining on your way home.  Make sure you have a way to carry the clothes you would rather not wear in the evening.  I prefer to wear things that are removable.  I have arm warmers and leg warmers.  I carry a spare set of gloves in my pack, long fingered to wear during the cold and fingerless in case it warms up.  I wear a balaclava to keep my face and neck warm, but it is easy to store, or just wear around my neck if not needed.  Toe warmers can help with shoes that have vents.  The same goes for helmet covers.  Just be sure that you don’t overdress or have issues stowing the things you don’t want to wear home.
• Carry spare shoes.  If you have the room, carry a light pair of sandals or flip-flops.  This really depends on the type of clipless you ride.  If you have SPDs (Shimano Pedaling Dynamics) you probably don’t have to worry about this as your cleat is usually recessed in to the shoe making them easy to walk in.  On the other hand, if you have LOOK pedals, like me, having a spare set of floppers to trudge your way to the locker room will save your cleats and toe warmers if you have them.
• Wear glasses.  If you have prescription glasses, then this is obvious.  On those bright sunny days, this is also pretty self-explanatory.  However, when riding down a hill at thirty miles an hour, that pair of Wiley-X’s or other clear-lens eyewear will prevent that bug from taking an eye out or dethroning you from your bike-pedestal.  Any type of safety lens will do, but Oakley and Wiley-X who make ballistic eyewear that really do the trick.
• Carry a multi-tool.  You never know when that crank shaft is going to fall off or your cantilever breaks get loose and your break pad rubs the rim even when they are not actuated.  Not having that right Allen Wrench could cause you to carry your bike the rest of the way home, or worse to work!  When choosing a multi-tool, if you decide to buy one that was not designed for bikes, remember that all bikes use metric sizes.

In terms of the trip

Bicyclists have the same rights and responsibilities on the road as motorists.  Bicyclists are permitted to travel in the center of the traffic lane if there are safety hazards on the right side of the road (such as parked cars or debris) or if the lane is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to share. Pass bicyclists with caution, treating them as you would any other vehicle and according to Georgia law. Motorists should not try to pass the bicyclist while remaining in the same lane of traffic. Bicyclists may be forced to swerve to avoid road hazards, causing a collision.

- 2008 Georgia Driver’s Manual, Chapter 1 - Traffic Laws, Georgia Department of Motor Vehicles

• Never travel sidewalks.  Though it is tempting when traffic is high to ride on the sidewalk to avoid it, it’s a bad idea.  Though I have heard people say that is illegal for bicyclists to ride on sidewalks, there is no record of it in the Georgia DMV.  The reason for not traveling on sidewalks is that there is a high probability of collisions occurring between cyclists and motorists at driveways and intersections.  Imagine a bread truck driver, if you will.  He has just finished a delivery and is approaching the main road from between the two buildings that the driveway runs between.  The entire front of his vehicle must cross the sidewalk before he has any visibility.  If you are riding down this same sidewalk, and you are crossing this same driveway at the same time, you could get you hit by this big bread truck.  Most people don’t stop at sidewalks when exiting driveways, the pull up to the street and stop blocking the drive.  If you hit the vehicle with your bike, it could be at fault.  Paying for an expensive Mercedes become more difficult if you don’t have insurance to cover it.  If you chose to ride on sidewalks, do so slowly with extreme caution.  I never do it.
• Travel on trails if possible.  Unlike the statement above, trails are made for cyclists and prevent motorized vehicles from traveling on them.  On trails, there are defined traffic intersections to mandate the crossing of the trail by motor vehicles.  There are many old rail roadways that have been converted to trails.  Check out Rails to Trails for more information. 
• Obey the law.  Many cyclists are guilty of running red lights or stop signs.  Remember, that as a cyclist, you are blessed with the right to ride on public road ways, with that right comes the responsibility to obey traffic laws.
• Keep to the right, but not too far.  When riding in a lane of traffic, keep to the right of the lane, but not on the line or on the shoulder.  I travel about 1-2 feet to the left of the lane divider line.  That is to say I stay to the right of the lane with a 1-2 foot buffer between me and the lane dividing line.  This way, I am not in the middle of the lane, so vehicles who don’t initially see me have some means of avoiding me.  I am also not hugging the right side of the lane, so vehicles don’t mistakenly think they can squeeze by me without actually passing me.  Vehicles should be forced to pass you as if you were a motorcycle.
• Hold your lane.  Do not be tempted to change into turning lanes when they become available (unless you are turning).  Changing lanes is dangerous because you don’t have conventional turn signals, so you must use arm signals.  This is especially tricky at night.  Changing into a turning lane, though it may feel safer, exposes you to the difficult task of returning to your original lane from the turning lane once it has ended.  It is much safer to stay in your original lane.  Keep in mind, if there are multiple lanes of traffic, excluding temporary lanes, you should pick the right most lane and hold that lane.
• Claim your lane at intersections.  When stopping at an intersection, you should move from the right to the middle of the lane to claim it.  Motorists pay the most attention to the vehicles in front of them and to the traffic signals.  If you are directly in front of them, they cannot blindly pass you.  This is important for clipless pedal riders.  If you have trouble clipping from a stop, you may weave or stop your bike.  If you are in the middle of the lane, this will be seen by the vehicle behind you.  If you are on the right side, the vehicle beside you and behind them may not see this and may hit you.   This is also very important when making left turns.  If you do not claim your lane, it may be assumed you are going straight instead of turning left.  If you force the driver behind you to stay behind you, then they cannot pass you while you attempt to turn left.  This is also very important when going straight through an intersection.  If you allow the driver to be beside you at the stop, if they want to turn right and you want to continue going straight, they will cross in front of you, or worse, into you.
• Do not over react.  When large trucks pass you, or someone honks at you, be aware of the events that are happening around you, but do not react unless it is called for.  Jittery riders tend to switch lanes or veer right with being passed by a vehicle, especially big trucks.  This makes you unpredictable.  Changing lanes is already a dangerous event, doing so sporadically increases the danger.  It is better to hold your lane unless you suspect it will more dangerous to do so.
• Do not follow too close.  Cars can stop very quickly.  If you are following too close, you are liable to hit them.  Unfortunately, you hitting a car from behind on your bike , increases then chances of the car behind you, thus sandwiching your between the two vehicles.  Bad deal.
• Communication is key.  Despite what anyone may say, NO ONE wants to hit you.  Cycle/Car collisions many times result in fatalities.  Make sure you are as predictable, visible and communicate your intentions at all times.  This will help ensure your safety.

And there you have it.

Joe.

Though this is the second day of SAF, it is really the first official day.  Yesterday was actually a pre-conference day.

Today, we had three keynote speakers.  Neil Leslie and Tim O’Brien from Microsoft, and Bob Pearson from Dell.  One interesting thing about the keynote speakers at this event is the that they were all limited to 30 minutes.  When hearing this, I initially felt that they would be too time constrained to be able to deliver a complete message, but all three were successful.

After the keynotes, the follow-on break out sessions, and lunch, we all gathered together for an Open Space session led by my friend, Steven “Doc” List.  This was my favorite part of the day (excluding some one-off conversations that recurred throughout).

Open Space, in a nutshell, has gets everyone together to nominate topics for discussion.  Once the topics are decided and organized (I am REALLY skimming over this part), everyone attends the topic discussions that they desire to hear or participate in.  I don’t know how many formats Open Space “supports” during topic deliberations, but I experienced two.  One topic I attended, the use of social networking in the enterprise and the challenges it presents such as privacy and security, was setup as chairs in a circle for discussion.  This was a good and productive session, but it was nothing compared to the first one I attended.

The first session I attended, “I don’t get Twitter”, had too many people to put all the chairs into one big circle.  So it was arranged with a “fishbowl” in the center.  The fishbowl consists of four chairs are placed in the center of the room in a circle facing inward.  There are some very basic rules here.  No one is allowed to participate in the discussion unless they are sitting in the fishbowl.  Only three people are allowed to sit in the fishbowl, meaning that there must always be one empty chair.  As someone wants to enter the discussion, they enter from the audience and sit in the empty chair.  One of the original three, usually the one that has been there the longest, must exit the fishbowl.  Once out of the fishbowl, you return to being part of the audience and can no longer participate in the discussion without reentering the fishbowl.

The “I don’t get Twitter” session was packed!  There were 10 topics run in parallel for a conference of about 300 attendees and there were over 50 people in this session alone.  There were many interesting questions posed during the session.  “What about security/safety of our children as they expose personal and geographic information about themselves?”, “How is Twitter monetized?”, “Does Twitter detract or enhance the work environment and should employers care?”, “What happens when a company is built on Twitter and Twitter ‘goes away’?”. 

They were all very good topics of discussion and there were many participants.  I personally, was addicted to the fishbowl and found myself reentering it several times during the session.  As you may have expected, the Tweeps in the audience were tweeting about being in an Open Space discussion about Twitter during the discussion.

The session lasted 50 minutes and was exhilarating.  I have asked Doc to facilitate our Open Space at the Atlanta ITARC in February and now that I have participated in Open Space, I am extremely excited.

I was the last person in the fishbowl (go figure) and I announced, as everyone left, that Doc had just tweeted to me “have you explained Twitter yet?”

To follow me or Doc on Twitter our aliases are jdecarlo and athought respectively.

And there you have it.

Joe.

The trip to San Francisco was uneventful, but the arrival was beautiful.  I was tipped off that I should get a window seat to witness the landing of the plane into the San Francisco International Airport.  It was quite beautiful.

My first day was very fun.  In addition to the planned festivities, I got to spend time with quite a few people that I normally don’t get to see face-to-face.

Of all the first day “Pre-conference” presentations, my favorite was by Ulrich “Uli” Homann.  Uli is a Principle/Partner Architect at Microsoft and is a Infrastructure/Solution Architect combination which is a rare breed.

Uli spoke to us about the energy crisis in data centers and how application design and virtualization can work together to address the issue. 

When analyzing how the industry addresses Green computing, the trend is for more efficient CPUs and lower power rack densities.  While cooling is a big energy consumer in today’s data centers, disk utilization of mass storage does not get the attention it deserves and consumes more energy than CPU, memory, and fans combined.

To win in this space, there are two basic approaches that can be taken.  Stabilizing resource utilization, while increasing service throughput, where services represent any server output.  And stabilizing that service throughput, while decreasing resource utilization.  While both these can address the problem, Uli presented solutions leveraging the first approach.  

An example of this would be planning around a stable storage constraint.  Let’s take a mass storage solution that houses 100 terabytes and takes 25 servers to support servicing that storage to consumers.  Stabilizing service throughput while reducing resource utilization would be accomplished by increasing each server’s efficiency so that the same 100 terabytes can be serviced by 10 servers with the same throughput.

Uli warned against over execution of cautious planning.  That is to say, plan for High Availability (HA) or Disaster Recovery (DR), but don’t implement it if you don’t need it.  Having huge amounts of unneeded replication in our data centers is contributing to the energy crisis.  Since the government is putting restrictions around the amount of power all data centers can consume (a percentage of the country’s overall power consumption), the days of paying for servers or storage that we don’t need in the name of “just-in-case” need to come to an end.  As architects, we need to be more responsible in identifying what deployment configurations we actually need before requesting them.

Uli introduced us to a concept called “Constraint Based Planning” which he picked up from a book by Eliyahu Goldratt called The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement.  I am not going to try to define it here, but he illustrates it using the data center and the comparison of energy spent versus the service units as you can see from the diagram on the right.

He suggests, from a infrastructure and solutions perspective, that services and applications should be segmented so that administrators can segment the work loads of servers.  All that is to say that if a service isn’t needed, don’t deploy it.  If it has to be deployed but is rarely used, don’t waste energy making it immediately available, but create a topology that will allow it to be serviced up from a hibernated or serialized and stored state.

This idea can be translated to application development, which is depends on, to allow application features to be turned “off”.  This is to say that not all features are immediately available.  Today, applications typically expect service calls to immediately respond.  To help solve this problem, applications should have resilience to failed service calls and allow for retry logic when it is not available.  So if the data center has “turned off” a particular service by some sort of hibernation, but can bring it back online when a request for it occurs, the application can support this kind of delay.

Though this session was mostly attended by infrastructure architects, there was a lesson for solution architects as well.

This does very little justice to Uli’s presentation, but, hopefully, there is something for you to digest here.

Comments welcome and encouraged.

Joe.

This past Wednesday, I attended a general bike maintenance class at REI.  This is a free class and I would recommend it to any beginning rider.

To kick off the class, we covered changing a tire.  The instructor, Cat, demonstrated on a road bike tire, but assured us that the principles she was going to show us applied to several different types of tires including mountain bike and hybrid tires.  Though stressing that a better practice is to bring a spare, she proceeded to show us how to patch a hole in a tube.  This exercise was thorough and complete.  Here are some of the tips she shared with us:

• Identify where the hole in the damaged tube is, even if you are going to replace it, so that you locate the area on the tire for inspection.
• Ensure that the tube has a little air in it before trying to install it.  This will keep the tube from twisting and make it easier to manage.  A tube that is installed with a twist, once inflated, can rupture or have other problems.
• If possible, refit the bike tire using only your hands, as using tire levers to perform this task risks damage to the tube.
• Before fully inflating the tire, inspect the entire tire to insure that the tube will not get pinched between the tire and the rim.  This could either cause the tire to lose its bead, or the tube to get a pinch flat.
• Fill tire to proper pressure.  When on a trail, there are two basic ways of inflating your tire.  A hand pump or a CO2 cartridge.  It is tempting to put “just enough” pressure with a hand pump.  Be sure not to under inflate the tire.  Most tires have minimum and maximum tire pressures listed on the side wall.  Make sure you achieve a tire pressure that falls within that range.  A lot of tires max out at 120psi and CO2 cartridges dump about that pressure into the tire when fully engaged.  Be cognizant of this and check your pressure before you ride. 

Next we covered derailleurs.  A quick definition of derailleurs.  Most bicycles have multiple “gears” and the mechanism that changes these gears is the derailleur system.  The derailleur system consists of a front and rear derailleur.  Both consisting of a chain and several sprockets.  The front derailleur has a guide called a cage that is used to move the chain between sprockets derailing it.  The rear derailleur has what’s called a jockey pulley to control the derailing of the chain between the rear sprockets.  Both the front and rear derailleurs have adjustment screws that control the high and low gear limit stops.  The limit stop is the distance that the cage or jockey pulley allow the chain to go horizontally along the sprocket grouping.  A maladjusted limit stop can either allow to chain to go too far, causing it to fall off of the sprocket group, or not far enough, causing it to not shift into the highest (or lowest) gear.  When adjusting derailleurs, you should also consider the amount of tension the cables have.  Too loose or taught cables can also affect the shifting of gears.

I am by no means an expert in this area, so I will not attempt to explain how to adjust derailleurs.  In fact, some REI store locations offer a Derailleur Adjustment class.  In Atlanta, the Perimeter location is the only one that offers it ($30 for members/$50 for non-members).

Finally we covered basic maintenance.  How to care for your chain and other components.  Here are some of the talking points:

• All Allen Bolts on bicycles are metric.  It is very easy to mistakenly use a standard Allen Wrench on them, thus stripping them.  Only use metric Allen Wrenches.
• Keeping the components that have moving parts properly cleaned will extend the life of the component.
• Use a degreaser to clean the chain.  She recommended  Finish Line Speed Degreaser.  Ensure that you do not ride the bike after degreasing without first lubing the chain.
• Allow the degreaser to completely dry before applying lube to the chain.  She recommended Tri-Flow Superior Lubricant.
• When lubricating the bicycle, find all parts where metal touches metal and add lubricant to that area.  A single drop of lubricant is usually enough.
• Do not forget to add lubricant to the cables where they meet the housing.  These cables are called Bowden Cables and the plastic sheathed housing is lined with metal where it contacts the cable.  Be sure to place the cable on the smallest sprocket when applying the lubricant as the smallest sprocket causes the least amount of resistance on the cable, thus putting it in the most exposed position.  Then change the gears to the largest sprocket (progressing to the easiest gear for the rear derailleur and the hardest gear for the front derailleur).  This will increase the tension of the cable causing it to get pulled through the housing dragging the newly applied lubricant with it.

One quick note that was covered in the class was to be cognizant of chain wear.  The chain is the quickest thing to wear out on a bike and is often overlooked until it breaks.   She recommended the Park CC-2 Chain Checker though REI doesn’t carry it.

And there you have it.

Joe.

Yesterday, I cashed in on my wife’s Birthday present to me: a Bike Fitting at Atlanta Cycling, Vinings.

Before I dive into the details, let me explain what a bike fitting is and why they are a good idea.  Many people purchase bikes.  Road bikes, mountain bikes, time trial bikes, hybrids… all kinds.  The people who purchase them from mediocre bike shops should expect that the sales person will ask you your height and possibly the length of your pant inseam, if they ask you anything at all.  From this they will determine what size bike you should purchase.  Some places will even have you stand over the bike to determine the clearance between the top tube and your body.  Sounds good, right?  I thought so, too.  Fortunately, most good bike shops have competent employees that know at least the minimum measurements needed to purchase the correct size bike for a person.  But that is just getting the right sized bike…that doesn’t fit the bike.  A bike fitting is a series of measurements and observations that tell the bike fitter how to adjust both the bike components and you, the rider, to get a better, more comfortable fit on the bike.

The reason I felt I needed to get fitted was because my arms would fatigue far faster than my legs and my breathing.  Occasionally, my hands and my left foot would fall asleep during rides.  I stumbled upon someone else getting fitted at Atlanta Cycling and I watched for about 10 minutes.  I was sold.  I learned so much just watching someone else’s fitting that I knew I would greatly benefit from getting one of my own.

As instructed, I brought my bike, to the shop dressed in full riding gear.  After mounting my bike onto the bike trainer, Mike, the fitter, observed as I rode for about five minutes.  He asked me to make a few small adjustments to the way I was riding (i.e. hand placement) while he observed.  After he was satisfied that he saw enough, he explained that he was going to record me during some interval riding.  He started the recording and I rode for about 3 minutes.  He had captured my video into a program on his laptop.  Now he could do analysis of my riding posture in slow motion and using the program’s measurement utilities.  Once he established a baseline, he started to the first of the many changes.

Starting “from the ground, up”, he wanted to adjust the cleats on my shoes first.  He has me walk in a straight line, and the return to toe a line he made with masking tape.  Measuring off the natural position of my feet while standing with more tape, he used this information to adjust my cleats.  After he was done, I rode the bike again.  Using a tripod-mounted laser pointer, he pointed them at my knees.  We could both see that my knees now went smoothly up and down during each rotation.  Before the cleat adjustment, my knees made tiny loops at the top of the rotation.  This sounds like a small change, but I could tell a big difference.

Next he decided to work on getting my heel lower.  Apparently, I, like many people, “toe pedal”.  Toe pedaling is when you point your toes too much while pedaling.  After asking why this is bad he replied with an analogy.  Imagine that you were sitting on a balance beam with nothing to support you but a set of 2×4’s just close enough to touch with your toes.  This would be fine enough to take the pressure off of your perineal nerve until your toes and calves got tired.  Eventually, you would rotate back off of your toes and put most of your weight on your perineal nerve.  Not only does this cause discomfort, but could put a damper on future fatherhood, if one so desired.  Keeping the heel parallel to the ground for as much of the rotation as possible engages larger muscle groups in the leg and thus is more power and less fatigue.  He fixed the problem, mostly, with seat adjustment.  He raised my seat a total of about 2 inches.  Interestingly enough, the bike shop that sold me my bike said that I may have to lower my seat some more, but it would involve cutting the seat post since it was as low as it would go.  Initially, I could tell the difference of the seat adjustment, but it put more pressure on my arms.

Next he addressed the added pressure to my arms.  First he changed the stem of my handlebars.  It raised the handlebars significantly.  The pressure of on my arms disappeared, but I still wasn’t fully comfortable.  He measured my shoulder width and then my handlebars.  I didn’t realize there is a correlation, but my shoulders measured 44 inches and my handlebars measured 40 inches.  I wasn’t sitting natural on the bike because I was reaching inward two inches on each side of my body just to grab the handlebars.  Replacing the handlebars and the stem turned my Bianchi into a totally different bike. 

After a few more adjustments and measurements and a lot more observations, we were done.  I rode around the parking lot and couldn’t believe the difference that all the little adjustments made.  He then recorded me doing intervals again.  He overlaid the first, baseline, recording over the new recording.  You could see many differences.  One was my head placement.  My head was higher and it was more comfortable for me to look forward, so I did it more.  My heel position was lower to the ground and the angles were less aggressive.  I was able to sit up higher in the saddle.  One huge difference I saw was the raising and dropping of my hip during rotations.  Initially, they were so dramatic that you could see my biking being pulled from side to side as I strode.  Now it was minimized and the bike was stationary.

This was a great experience for me, and I would recommend it to anyone who is serious about riding.  I am sure that there are a lot of places that do this, but if you are in the Atlanta area, visit Atlanta Cycling’s Vinings store.  Ask for Mike, he’ll do a good job.

And there you have it.

Joe.