New post?

Hmm.... I just pressed the "new post" button... it's been very close to a year now. Let's see where this leads.

An Advent Toast

An Advent Toast


There is a certain time of year
When children lean in close to hear
The gentle ebb and flow of life
(And we disdain the hectic strife
Of jobs, and money's cloying pull)
—To hear the swelling anthem, full
Of whispers of the Coming One.

Have you not heard? We're due a Son.
Of God and human flesh combined—
Not demigod, but Man, divine.
He came to answer Satan's cry:
“If there be God, why must you die?
And why, if he be ‘good’ and who
He says he is—'not old, not new',
But everlasting Holiness—
Then why allow this human mess?”

So Satan says, and Pavlov's son,
(The middle one) agrees: "He's done
A poor job in creating us,
And yet he still demands we trust—
This 'god' who hears the baby scream
In agony, when who would dream
Of letting one poor baby shed
One tear, and not give up his head
To save that child from pain?”

How now to give this God acclaim?
(Thus Dostoevsky poses it.)
“Perhaps eternal bliss might get
For us our long-sought recompence
From Life. Perhaps. But then from whence
Will we seek justice when our hope
That 'God is good' has interloped
With all our need that God be God?”

And thus it is that Christ has come
As as God enfleshed (and yet His Son)
To be Eternity concealed
In Mary’s womb: to be revealed
As Man of Man, and God of God.
And so His ancient feet have trod
The paths worn deep by weary men
Who trudge through misery and sin
And lift their heavy gaze to ask:
“Why then does God give me this task?
Who can endure this darkened world...”

— He answers, like a rose unfurled:
“I have not come to give you pat
And easy answers. More than that,
I’ve come to answer with my Blood
The chaos like a rushing flood:
I AM your God! And on the tree
I proved you have more worth to Me
Than pearls or coins—what metaphor
Will show you that I love you more
Than Life itself?”

A gentle pause.

And then He stoops from holding stars
To put his nail-rent hand in ours.
“It was not just the veil He tore
When on that rough-hewn tree I bore
Your wickedness. My heart was killed.
And though, in hopeful faith, I thrilled
That now at last the human race
Would have its only chance at grace,
Do not for any moment think
That I was not upon the brink.
Yes, I am God. But I am Man.
Indeed, no theologian can
Imagine what it is I did;
Some things from human eyes are hid.

“And no, I did not deign to give
To Dostoevsky, while he lived,
An answer to his deepest plight.
And even now, in heaven’s Light
He will not eagerly disclose
The simple answer that he knows.
‘Far better does it seem to me
To walk and talk with him and see
It written on his Face,’ he says,
'I could say more, but I'll say less.'"

And so, my friends, the time has come
To lift our Nog glass filled with rum;
To sing our merry songs and smile
(Perhaps He joins us for a while).
But let us with our Yule-tide mirth
Recall that God has walked the earth.
And while he walked he bore our pain;
He suffered, died and rose again,
That we might also die to sin,
To live eternally with Him.

Christmas, Anno Domini 2008.
 

Jedediah Compton

A short and factual account of the group ride I went on last weekend. My group took a wrong turn, and ended up going about ten miles and fifteen hundred feet of elevation farther than planned. On the way, we passed a kind old farmer, with a hidden hillside farm who pointed the way.  When we saw him, he was doing something strange with some strange instrument out in his field...

Securing Your Bike

In my storied career, I've had stolen 1 saddle, 1 rear wheel, 2 setes of lights, 1 bike-specific coffee mug (including an old latte), and 1 complete bicycle. Even writing this list makes me feel a little violated. But I write it to emphasize the reality of theft for the uninitiated.

Because of the above occurences, I've gained a healthy respect for the lowness of humans, and a bit of practical knowledge on locking stuff up. The basic gist: attach your frame to some immovable object, then attach securely to the frame the removeable bicycle stuff (at least the stuff that a.) you're attached to, and b.) could be of interest to some cad). If this were the entirety of the formula, there would be no need to write on the subject. However, there is a controlling variable: you generally have to carry your locking mechanism with you while you travel around. So, you can't just use a length of chain from the anchor line of an ocean-going vessel.
The optimum balance I've found:

.... In combination with:

This Kryptonite U-lock (the "Evolution Mini") falls under the category of Very Good Things. (Other examples: that perfectly fitting pair of jeans, that deep-gloss black paint on a 70's motorcycle tank, my perfectly aged 1970 Brooks B15 Special Narrow... you get the idea.) This u-lock is strong, small, relatively light—and opens and closes with a smooth, precise, satisfying action. I use it in tandem with the 4' plastic-enclosed steel cable. Kryptonite sells a 7' cable as well, but I just can't bring myself to buy one that long. If they made a 5' cable, I'd snap it up. Then I could secure both my wheels and my saddle. As it is, I have to choose between my rear wheel and my Brooks, and the Brooks obviously wins. Though I don't have a quick release rear wheel, I'm setting myself up to be a victim of my own Point 3, corollary i. below.
At any rate, the below diagrams illustrate how I attach everything. If you have agressive geometry, narrow (steel) tubing, and a relatively small-diameter post to attach to, you can enclose the front wheel, the frame, and the post within the u-lock. You could then protect both your saddle and your rear wheel with the four-footer.
Forgive the drawings; I had my assistant Lucas do them. He chose to use Microsoft Paint and a mouse. Poor fool; I pay him minimum wage, and he doesn't realize that with work like this, he'll never go anywhere.

Fig. 1.1

Fig 1.2

Before I leave the topic, a few parting shots:

1. If you travel to the same place(s) every day, it might be worth your proverbial while to leave a large u-lock in each of the locations. Then you'll never have to carry the five-pound beasts with you.

2. Some people will take off the various components on their bike-- wheels, saddle, etc.-- and lock them all into the u-lock. This is fine, and certainly secure. I've done it. But it's certainly more work than is saved by not carrying a good cable.

3. A primer in the Philosophy of Theft

a) If you like it even a little, there is somebody that would be willing to steal it.

b) You cannot apply statistical analysis to the prevention of theft: if there is "only a one-in-a-hundred chance that someone who would steal this bike would be walking by today", then your bike will be stolen. If it is physically possible to steal your bike, its theft is ineluctable. (Of course, this within parameters. It's always possible, on some level.)

Corollary i) The only factors you can use to determine if your bike is secure are physical. Exempli gratia: My bike was stolen between the hours of 11:00am and 1:00pm, in the middle of the busiest part of a busy campus, having been locked to a secure base with a thick cable lock. Principle: I left open the physical possibility of its being stolen by not using a good u-lock, and I relied upon human factors. "Well, nobody would try to steal it here, in the middle of the day..."

It was once reported of a certain prudent: "He needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man." You are wise to apply the same to your two-wheeled Beloved.

Bike Commuting Clothing Dilemma

The bike commuting clothing dilemma: there are no wrong answers. Well, I guess unless you so badly underestimate the weather, and the business hours of public transportation, that you are forced to call a cab at two in the morning to drive you home. That would certainly be a wrong answer. But I've never done that.

Nonetheless, I have learned a little bit during my time commuting by bicycle nearly every day through an Oregon winter. The meta-question of the bike clothing dilemma can be distilled to: "Should I wear bike stuff, or should I wear my normal clothing?" This post will not attempt to be exhaustive, but will help you ask yourself the right questions.

Some background. During my final year of college, I worked at the local branch of a nationally-recognized coffee shop company. I would work the four in the morning shift, and then head off to class for the day. I will let my astute readers do the math: to be at work by ten till four, I had to leave my house at about a quarter after three. Which meant that I was biking through some of the least pleasant hours of the winter.

When I first started this routine, I attempted to wear my work clothes with rain pants and jacket over the top. I soon learned that even on a 25 minute ride, my legs, clad in rubber, could generate a substantial amount of sweat. Additionally, if it was actually raining, the rain paints were a sopping mess when I finished the ride. I then had the issue of storing my wet, muddy pants somewhere—I certainly didn't want to put them in my bag—until my shift was over. I eventually solved the lower body problem by wearing a bike-tights/cargo shorts combination. I was surprised that in all but the strongest downpours, my legs and my shorts did not get overly wet.

After a few months of similar trial and error, I settled on the following metric for deciding what to wear/pack: The less distance/hills/load/dress code/etc. anticipated for the commute, the closer to normal clothing you can get. For example, I currently bike to work every day. And I also wear a suit every day. However, I bike approximately... 400 yards to work. So, my rating on the above metric is relatively low, and I'm able to simply wear the clothes I wear for work on my ride.

Let's take the inverse: Suppose we are riding fifteen miles each way to school, with a shift at the local eatery thrown in. In this case, we'd most likely want to wear something that is bike-specific for the ride, and pack our clothes. Now don't get me wrong, bike-specific does not necessarily mean spandex. Just wear what you’re comfortable in on the bike; pack the rest. This will avoid the problem of sweating into the clothes you’re going to wear all day.

When October rolls around, and you start commuting through weather that’s not typically considered bike-friendly, you will have to adjust your wardrobe. Of course the normal adages apply here: wear multiple thin layers as opposed to one big layer, so you can adjust your insulation as conditions and your body heat change. As I said above, I found that tights under shorts worked well for my lower half. They were flexible on the bike, and worked well in weather from 60 degrees down to about 25.

I never invested in a good warm had that would fit under my helmet. I ended up finding a solution that worked well for me. I would put the hood of the sweatshirt and/or rain jacket I was wearing up, and put my helmet over that. It not only kept my head warm, it kept my hood tightly in place where I wanted it. Hoods are prone to blowing off in the wind.

A few one-word mentions of things to be aware of: Bike shoes versus normal shoes, neoprene booties (get them), gloves, fenders (will be adressed elsewhere, but they are essential, and have something to do with clothing, i.e. keeping you dry), scarves or something else to keep your neck warm.

Before I leave the bike clothing topic for now, let me add this: It is a great joy to get where you are going under your own power, in bad weather, while remaining very comfortable. There were many times that I found myself cycling in thirty-five degree weather, with a light rain, at three-thirty in the morning—and realized how snug I felt, and how happy. It is one of those secret joys, which one knows will not be attempted by most people. One feels like the explorer who just came back from the wilderness to exclamations of “Oh my! But wasn’t it dangerous?” Of course any good explorer will accept the adulations and perpetuate the myth, but inwardly he chuckles: It was actually quite fun…

Let’s touch lightly on another question: What should I use to carry my stuff? The two basic answers here are 1) Some sort of bag that you wear, or 2) Some sort of container that hangs on your bike. For the year that I was biking considerable distances with a considerable load, I used a large messenger-style bag. It fit everything I needed, and it was completely waterproof. I don’t think this is a bad way to go, but I’ve recently begun using a rear rack to carry the smaller loads that I do now, and it is certainly nice to get the weight off my shoulders. The potential downside to racks and panniers (those bags that hang down on the sides of the bike) is that your load will not be as portable when you leave you bike behind. In some situations, this is not a big deal. In situations like mine, where I was hopping off my bike to go to class here, a coffee shop there, etc., it was certainly nice to have my things already in a carrying bag.

The bag topic brings to mind another crucial aspect of bike commuting: the staging area. It is a very good thing if you have a locker room, shower, and/or simply a good storage place at your destination. But more on this later…