Excitement in the mail : Cycling License



I put in for two licenses at once.  It was time for me to renew my driver's license and I decided to go the distance and get a cycling license so I can race this year.  After filling in all forms and sending what had to be sent in the mail, this meant waiting at the mailbox for several weeks.  The big question was which would come first.  After waiting two weeks which one came first?  The cycling license!  It's only a piece of paper that you must tear out from a larger peice of paper, but it was definately more exciting than getting my new drivers license in the mail.  And... the cycling license came with a sticker. 

The sticker which comes with the license is pretty large I'd say about 4x7 inches or so.

I usually don't care for stickers but I have a binder for school that was waiting to be stickered.  It came with something else too but I was so excited to get the license that I kind of passed over the rest of what was in the envelope.  Here's a picture of someones license.  My looks exactly the same and after looking at the pictures online it appears that from year to year the only thing that changes is the color of the strip and year. 

Someones 2014 cycling license

Here it is blue and on previous years it was red, green, white, etc.  I think I was expecting it to be slightly more sturdy but i guess it doesn't have to be since you have to get a new one every year.     Now that I have my cycling license I can race without getting a day pass everytime I race (even though I've never done an official race).  That will hopefully change this year since I've made the goal to make getting the license worth it by entering a number of races. The new driver's license came in the mail a week later.  The conclusion here is that the US Cycling organization is better than the California Gov. 

No this is not me.  It's Ima Cardholder ;)

The drivers license it a better looking document.  I guess the US cycling organization isn't worried about people making fake racing licenses like the gov.  So if you want a nice piece of mail get a cycling license.



What Did You See While Cycling Today?! I Saw...

Three of these

Two of these

One of these

One of these

and one of these

Yes that is a truck very close to going over the side of a cliff.  There were also multiple other usual sites like squirrels and cars and other cyclists but for my three year old son this would have been the ultimate cycling trip (maybe if there was a construction site along the way too).

I saw the a Highway Patrol car (now SUV-referred to as CHP below) coming up the road as I was going down which was only slightly strange becuase the road is little traveled but thought nothing of it.  I gave the officer a nod and carried on.  A bit down the way there was a car stopped with another CHP in front of it.  People were standing around and then the next obvious site was a Fire Engine (kind of hard to miss).  And to the side of the road, the side of the road that has no side i.e. it is a cliff and trees, was a white truck half in the trees half on the road.  A fire fighter was pulling out chainsaws and I figured they were going to have to do a little work to make it possible for the tow truck to do his duty.  And on the other side of the fire truck and tow truck was another CHP.  It didn't look like anyone was hurt, probably just a little shaken up.  I didn't stick around and watch, just shimmied on by.  They must have dealt with the truck pretty quick because it was taken care of before I was headed back that way in about 30min.  The point here is to get out and ride! It's exciting and fun as long as the excitement does not invovle oneself too much!

That Person with all the KOMs on Strava in Your Region : Ian Boswell

On the way to the Paskenta Century Ride my brother says to me, "Hey you know that guy with all the KOMs on Strava?"  Yes, I see it every time I look at my stats after a ride. Ian Boswell. He continues, "Do you know who he is?" Nope. I do not. My Brother continues to tell me that Ian Boswell is on Team Sky! Yes that same Team Sky with the past two years winners of the Tour de France i.e. Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome! I asked him how he found out and he said he was looking up stuff on the Paskenta Century Ride and while reading it mentioned Ian Boswell wouldn't be attending because he was in Europe training.  He recognized the name and did a search and quickly found outh that Ian Boswell was signed to Team Sky in 2013.  Pretty cool.  He also saw a tweet by Ian about big events going on in the U.S. which read:Ian Boswell ‏@theboz91 Feb 1

It's a big sporting day back in the USA today, Paskenta Century and some Superb Owl game. Let freedom ring and Budweiser flow!

(If you want a bit of a laugh about the Superb Owl game check out this link to the Colbert Report http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/432521/january-27-2014/superb-owl-xlviii )

Check out who's at the top of your Strava lists. Maybe you'll find a local rider gone pro.  Anyway, now I'll have a rider to follow this coming season.  Don't know if he'll be in the Tour de France or Giro d'italia but it will probably get me to follow some of the lesser known races.  I may have just become a Team Sky fan.  We'll see.

Sure in my Cycling Novicehood

  Yesterday my brother and I went for a ride and on this ride I was reassured that I am a beginner cyclist.  Luckily I'm able to laugh off these uncomfortable and pride crippling situations.  We had made it 20 miles or so through our ride when my brother noticed he had a flat tire.  I was behind him so I noticed he was slowing down.   I slowed down as well and as he got off his bike he said, "I've got a flat... and you're.... falling of your bike."  Yes it was true, I was falling off my bike.  What happened?  Well I almost always, no, always unclip my left foot and get off my bike to the left.  Here there was not and option for that since it meant going into the road and I'd pulled to the right of my brother.  I unclipped my right foot and took mental note that I had to get off my bike on the ride side but I think my body naturally leans left now and well I leaned left and timber.  Down I went.  My bro. broke my fall for the most part.  No blood or even torn skin on the road, just some pieces of my pride were left behind.  This hasn't happened to me in a very long time but it should definately keep me aware of how much of a begginer I really am.   Besides falling off my bike I was able to give my brother all that he needed to fix his flat since he wasn't with a saddle bag and I was.   We went on our way and as we went I got a few chuckles out of the way he said I was falling off my bike.   The moral of this story is to be prepared to stop getting off either side of your bike.  Here's a short video of some pro cyclist falls.  Most of which I'd never seen.  Even the pros fall just not like me.  But we do have the same attitude in common.  We get back up and spin on. 

Cycling Socialization: Ride your bike and save money!

You may be thinking that the idea of riding your bike to save money is all about saving your gas money.  I'm here to tell you otherwise.  There can be much more money saved from time to time and the way to save money is through socialization!  That's right, riding your bike with others and talking to them!  I went on a ride the other morning with my brother and we got to talking.  I asked him if he could take me to pick up my car from the dealership later in the day because I was going to take it in after our ride to have some maintenance done.  He said, "What are you going to have done?" I gave him short list of the things I knew needed done and he told me he could do all of that and to bring my car over after our ride.  After the ride I brought over my car, we checked out everything that needed to be done, made a list of the parts we needed, went to Autozone, bought what we needed for $140 (remember that number) and spent a couple of hours fixin' up my car.  I thanked my brother profusely becuase I knew I had saved at least $500 since that was a general number I had heard to change out my brake pads.  I was curious though as to exactly how much I saved so I made a call to the dealership where I was going to go.  I thought it was going to cost about $900 total for the work to be done and I was pretty close.  They told me $650 to check the parts and change out the fluids I needed and an extra $250 for the front brakes and $190 for the rear brakes to be changed out.  A total cost of $1090!(cough cough heart-attack). Savings made because I went for a ride that morning and I have an Awesome Brother who was nice enough to help me out was a grand total of $950! That's money in my pocket!

I just want to add that everything that we did was extremely easy (even changing out the brake pads, which required loosening 1 bolt!).  Luckily my brother knows cars well enough that he could inspect everything else.  The moral of this story is the title of the post: Ride your bike and save money! Get out there and talk to those you ride with. Socialize and have fun while spinning those wheels. Keep some money in your pocket.

Also, if your interested, the things we did to the car besides the inspection included: changing the oil, oil filter, dust and pollen filter, air cleaner element, front and rear brake pads. We also rotated the tires and topped of the coolant. 

The Best Ride is with the One You Love!

I did two rides today one was a joy ride and the other was a semi-joy ride.  The better of the two was the straight joy ride.  Why was it so nice?  Because my wife went with me!  It actually came as a bit of a shock.  She's a bit scared to ride her bike but today when I woke up she said she wanted to go with me!  So i picked out an easy route and encouraged her along the way.  She does great, it's just not habitual for her yet to get in and out of the clipless pedals.  We went down the bike path then did a few laps around a block and were able to chat a little and then we headed back towards our home.  We spotted Gaba (my wife's mom who's visiting from Russia - Gaba is actually a name my oldest son came up with. It's a mix of Galya which is her name and babooshka which is the Russian word for Grandma - hence Gaba) walking with our kids, so we rode on up to them.  I must admit I was all smiles the whole way.  I love riding, and the weather was great, but riding with my wife on a beautiful day just brings a new level of happiness to riding!  I figure it will be the same way to ride with my kids too.   6.7 miles of joy.  Luckily I get to be around my wife alot.  I'm pretty lucky. I love my wife!

Wind Chill While Cycling - How Cold Is It With That Wind Chill?

I went out again in the bitter cold.  Today I checked the weather.  42F where I was starting out and 34F where I was going to be.  I wore my winter (not cycling) gloves ontop of my cycling gloves and I'm happy to report that I had nice warm hands for almost the entire time.  There was a point where I felt a slight chill but it didn't last long.  I wore an extra pair of socks and well my feet did better than they would have with one pair socks but still got pretty dang cold when I was going fast (15-35mph).  So as I was screaming down the bottom part of a hill I was thinking to myslef, "I wonder how cold it really feels with the wind chill?"  Thus I decided to seek out how cold it is.  I found this nice chart online.

Click on the chart to see it better!

Wind speed (or how fast you're going on you're bike in this case) is on the left and the thermometer temperature is on the top.  All of the other numbers are what the temperature feels like.  I saw on one chart stated that wind at 40mph or faster has little effect on the way temperature feels so if you go really fast on your bike it won't get colder and colder.  There is a stopping point to the cold.   So today the coldest point for me was about 21F (-6C) as I was going 35mph down in the valley where it was 34F (1C).  Cold.  Here's a Conversions chart for anyone who needs to figure the chart in Celcius. Happy and Warm Riding to Everyone.