Getting a Little Shifty

Ugh, another break that was entirely too long. However, I have not forgotten about this blog, just busy with other things (jobs, life, etc.). I am riding again, although I did take last week off because I over did it the week before and ended up with a very painful cramp in my right calf. (Sounds like another blog entry to me.) Anyways, today I want to shift gears and talk about shifting gears (literally).

Now, unless you have either a single speed bike or an internally geared bike, you have the standard front and rear derailleur configuration. Most people tend to stick with only a handful of gears, often times at the lower end because their bike isn't properly adjusted to their body, but that's another topic. Many people (Americans, especially) like to buy bicycles with lots of gears thinking that "more is better". Well, not necessarily so. Consider this, the typical mountain/hybrid bicycle has a triple chainring up front and an eight or nine speed cassette in the rear, giving a total of 24 or 27 gear combinations. However, not all of those combinations are usable and many are either duplicates or close enough that it makes little or no perceived difference.

Let's take my bike for example. I ride an older Specialized with a triple chainring with a 30/40/50 combination and a seven speed freewheel with a setup of 12/14/16/18/21/24/28. So that should give me 21 speeds, right? Wrong! Out of the 21 speeds, there are three combinations that are duplicates (I'll illustrate that in a minute), four combinations that are unusable due to the resulting chain angle (one of which is also a duplicate mentioned above), and one where the difference is minor.

To better illustrate this, I am using the late Sheldon Brown's on-line gear inch calculator. Since I ride with a 700C x 38 wheel, I factor that into the calculator, along with my 175mm crankarms and get the following gear inch table:

30 33.3 % 40 25.0 % 50 12 68.3 91.1 113.8 16.7 % 14 58.5 78.1 97.6 14.3 % 16 51.2 68.3 85.4 12.5 % 18 45.5 60.7 75.9 16.7 % 21 39.0 52.0 65.0 14.3 % 24 34.2 45.5 56.9 16.7 % 28 29.3 39.0 48.8

The following gear combinations are duplicates: 30x21 and 40x28; 30x18 and 40x24; 30x12 and 40x16. The following combinations are unusable because the resulting chain angle would cause rubbing on the front derailleur and excess lateral flex on the chain: 30x14, 30x12, 50x28, and 50x24. (Note that 30x12 is both a duplicate and an unusable gear.) The gear combinations 30x16 and 40x21 are less than one gear inch apart, so the difference is imperceptible.

A gear inch, for those who don't know, is defined as the number of inches traveled for each revolution of the pedals, and dates back to the old penny-farthings. Most people don't concern themselves with gear inches any more, but it can be useful for devising a shift pattern.

Again, taking my bike as an example, I use twist shifters rather than trigger shifters, but both have numbers that correspond to the respective gear from low to high, so this should translate to other bikes. I printed out the table above, crossed out the unusable gear combinations and highlighted the duplicates. Next, I numbered the chainrings and cogs from low to high to match the numbers on my shifters. Then I opened up a spreadsheet program and created the following shift table:

1-1	1-2	1-3	1-4	1-5
		2-1	2-2	2-3	2-4		2-5		2-6		2-7
						3-3		3-4		3-5		3-6	3-7

Note: The number to the left of the hyphen denotes the left shifter number (or chainring) and the number to the right of the hyphen denotes the right shifter number (or cog).

As you can see, I have three combinations that are (more or less) duplicates, therefore they are listed as being equal on the shift table. I left this as such in case I find myself in the lowest chainring for extended periods of time (like hills or strong headwinds). Otherwise, I start with the combination of 2-1 and start my shift pattern from there. I can now take this shift table, print it out, and tape it to my handlebars as an easy reference (and less memorization).

To use the table, I merely start out with a gear combination (normally 2-1) and shift from left-to-right to upshift, and right-to-left, to downshift. So, a normal upshift pattern would be 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 3-3, 2-5, 3-4, etc. Whenever extra torque is needed (such as strong headwinds, climbing hills, etc.), I'll start with 1-1 through 1-5, then shift to 2-4, 3-3, and so forth. This allows me to shift to each successive gear (according to gear inch) without making a massive jump that could sap my strength and energy in the long run and help maintain my cadence.

Active Transportation Leads to Leaner Nations

File this under "Well, duh". Apparently, countries that have higher rates of bicycling, walking and mass transit usage are populated by leaner people.

Study: Leaner nations bike, walk, use mass transit
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD

Jim Richards is no kid, but he loves to ride his bike. At 51, he has become a cycling commuter, pedaling 11 miles from his home in the suburbs to his job in downtown Knoxville.

"It really doesn't take that much longer" than driving, he insists.

And he gets 40 minutes of exercise twice a day without going to the gym, which he attributes to a 20-pound weight loss.

New research illustrates the health benefits of regular biking, walking or taking public transportation to work, school or shopping. Researchers found a link between "active transportation" and less obesity in 17 industrialized countries across Europe, North America and Australia.

"Countries with the highest levels of active transportation generally had the lowest obesity rates," authors David Bassett of the University of Tennessee and John Pucher of Rutgers University conclude.

Americans, with the highest rate of obesity, were the least likely to walk, cycle or take mass transit, according to the study in a recent issue of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. The study relied on each country's own travel and health data.

Only 12 percent use active transportation in the United States - 9 percent walk, 1 percent ride a bike and 2 percent take a bus or train - while a quarter to a third are obese, the study said.

By comparison, 67 percent of commuters in Latvia, 62 percent in Sweden and 52 percent in the Netherlands either walk, bike or use mass transit. Latvia's obesity rate is 14 percent, the Netherlands' is 11 percent and Sweden's is 9 percent.

A similar pattern was found in Canada (19 percent active transportation, 23 percent obese) and Australia (14 percent active transportation, 21 percent obese).

Overall, Bassett said, "Europeans walk three times as far and cycle five times as far as Americans."

The authors say it's more than lifestyle choices that lead Americans to use their cars more. Europe's compact, dense layout and infrastructure are more conducive to getting around without a car.

Europeans on average walk 237 miles and cycle 116 miles per year; U.S. residents walk 87 miles and bike 24 miles. Bassett and Pucher calculated that translates into burning off 5 to 9 pounds of fat annually for Europeans compared to only 2 pounds for Americans.

While the analysis doesn't prove that transportation keeps obesity levels down "they make an excellent case," said Susan Handy, who heads the Sustainable Transportation Center at the University of California at Davis.

"The question, then, is what do we do?" said Handy, who was not involved in the study. "How do we get more people walking and bicycling in the U.S.?"

Anne Lusk, a research fellow at Harvard School of Public Health, said the study's results make sense.

"What I found most exciting about this excellent research is the applicability," she said. "The issue then becomes should we improve our transit, walking or bicycling opportunities simultaneously or should we focus on one of the three?"

Lusk said her first choice is bicycles - and not just because of global warming, fluctuating gas prices or the economic downturn. When Dutch researchers asked people to match emotions with various forms of travel, she said, "The greatest emotion was joy for bicycling."

Richards rekindled his love affair with a two-wheeler a few years ago while visiting bike-friendly Sweden.

Back home, he has a couple of things going for him. Richards lives in a medium-size Southern city where police officers can be found patroling on bikes and the mayor sometimes cycles to city hall.

The car is still king here, like most places in the United States, but Knoxville has developed a 41-mile greenway system that keeps Richards mostly on paved trails and off city streets.

He also works for an environmentally conscious employer. The country store-themed Mast General Stores of Valle Crucis, N.C., pays Richards and his co-workers $4 a day to ride, walk or catch a bus rather drive than their car.

After a year, his annual checkup shows the results: his heart rate, blood pressure and cholesterol all are down.

"I just love riding," he said. "It's like a double-shot of caffeine in the morning."

Well, isn't that surprising. Okay, not really, but this has an implications for Mississippi. As you are probably aware, Mississippi leads the nation in obesity, and ranks high in the number of heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes. Also not surprising is that Mississippi ranks near the bottom (47^th) in bicycling. For those who live in Mississippi who bicycle and/or walk, please consider donating Bike Walk Mississippi, supporting Let's Go Walking Mississippi and, whenever possible, use your local mass transit system.

The Ideal Commuter? - Part 3 My Commuting Setup

In my last entry in this series, I discussed the basic differences between a short-distance versus a long-distance commuter bike. This time, I will talk about my commuter, what accessories I bought and why I chose them.

The Bike

Any commuting bike starts with the bike itself. In my case, it is a 1992 Specialized Crossroads Trail hybrid that I bought when I was in college. It replaced my trusty Specialized Hard Rock that was stolen. (This is what happens when you don't lock your bike, but that's for a different post.) The frame is made from chromoly steel and weighs in at about thirty pounds. The drive train is a 30-40-50 chain ring with 12-28 seven speed freewheel. The wheels are 700c, which makes them slightly larger than the 26" wheels that were on my old mountain bike. The bike remained stock until this past year when I started commuting.

The Commuting Essentials

The first change I made was to install a rear rack. I bought a Bor Yeuh rack (the rack in the link is similar to the rack I own) from Bike Nashbar for $10 on sale. While not the greatest rack around, the price could not be beat. The downside I found with the rack was what I believe to be a pitiful lack of clearance over the rear tire. Therefore, I recommend that in looking at racks, especially for 700c tires, that you look for one that is either specifically designed for 700c wheels (most should fit) or, better yet, look for one that has adjustable mounting brackets, especially where the rack mounts at the rear drop outs.

I also needed panniers. I bought a set of Nashbar Daytrekker panniers, but was unsatisfied with the capacity, so I built a pair of panniers from a couple of plastic buckets that held cat litter (another future entry) that have proven to be very capable and voluminous.

Next, I swapped out the tires that I had (which were dry rotted anyways) with Specialized Infinity Reflect 700x38c. I chose these tires for the puncture resistant Flak Jacket casing and the reflective sidewalls. The tread is a little aggressive for pavement, but then again, parts of my commute involve construction zones that may have sand, dirt, crush limestone, and/or gravel.

The stock saddle was starting to crack and fall apart (note: avoid vinyl covered saddles), so I did some research and decided on the Brooks B17 saddle. A little pricey compared to other saddles, but it has proven to be very comfortable once broken in. If you decide a Brooks is the saddle for you, I would advise buying a tin of Proofide at the same time, and a saddle cover to protect it from the rain.

Speaking of rain, I wanted my bike to be an all-weather commuter, so I added a set of SKS P50 Chromoplast fenders and added a couple Brooks leather mud flaps as a finishing touch. I chose the SKS fenders because, unlike other plastic bicycle fenders, the SKS fenders are made with thin strips of aluminum encased in plastic. This gives them a bit more rigidity and, in my opinion, durability. In fact, you can mount a tail light on Chromoplast fenders; something that plastic fenders cannot do.

Being Visible

Since I know that I will eventually end up riding at dawn/dusk times and even at night, staying visible is a high priority. My philosophy when it comes to being visible on a bicycle is, "Too much is never enough". I believe in having a balance between active lights and passive reflectors; never rely on just one type. When in doubt, repeat this mantra: "Redundancy is good. Redundancy is good."

The biggest fear among bicyclists is getting hit from behind. But as I pointed out in an earlier post, those accidents are far outweighed by frontal and side collisions. I have two Plant Bike Superflashes mounted on my rear fender and red reflective tape on the backside of my seat stays, on the back of my rear rim and a red reflective sheet on the back of both my bucket panniers.

Up front, I run a pair of Romisen RC-N3 CREE Q5 LED Flashlights mounted with a pair of Twofish Cyclopblocks hanging off of a pair of Minora Swing Grips. The Romisen flashlights have only one function (steady), put out a lot of light (over 200 lumens), can run on either one CR123A or two AA batteries, and have a decent run time (I have heard over three hours, but have not confirmed this first hand). I use rechargeable NiMH batteries for the lights (both front and rear) to cut down on battery costs and lessen my impact on the environment. I also have white reflective tape on the handlebars, down the front of the forks, and on the back of my front rim.

The final touch is an amber dual tube Down Low Glow mounted on the down tube and left chain stay. If you never heard or seen this product before and do any amount of night time riding, do yourself a favor and check out the site. During the day, the DLG is pretty much useless, but at night, cars will not only see you, but often times give you an entire lane's worth of space when they pass you. (Yes, this is from first hand experience). Not only is there an enhanced safety factor, this is also the coolness factor. I have had more than one person say, "Cool" or "I like your bike" when I'm on my night rides.

Visibility is not just limited to the bike, but also extends to the rider. Depending on the weather, I wear either a short sleeve jersey or a long sleeve jersey in Hi-Vis Yellow. I also have a Sugoi Venture jacket in Hi-Vis yellow. At night, I will add a reflective vest over my jersey. The one I currently wear is a green safety vest with silver reflective trim, but ideally I want to get a Hi-Vis yellow vest with safety orange trim and silver reflective tape. With all the road construction along Highway 90 recently, I found that this combination is highly visible even in fog.

Room for Improvement

Now after all that, you'd think I'd be satisfied. However, there are some areas that can be improved upon. First, I am still working on a nagging issue of the best hooks to use on my bucket panneirs; I currently use latching fender hooks to keep the panniers from bouncing loose. Second, I would like a second set of wheels (front and rear) as a backup in case one the current wheels gets damaged. I also want to try a different set of tires, namely Schwable Marathon Plus tires, which have superior puncture resistance, but also a high weight factor.

Even though the lights I have are suitable for the job, it would be nice to have lights that do not rely on battery power. Therefore, a generator hub (either Shimano or Schmidt) and coupled with a Busch & Müller Lumotec IQ Fly Plus headlight and a Busch & Müller 4D Lite Plus tail light would make an ideal companion to the battery powered lights and allow for longer night rides. Speaking of longer night rides, a better battery pack for the DLG would be a nice extra. I would also enhance the reflectivity of the bike by using SOLAS tape one the front of the bucket panniers, as well as the rims.

And as a final Fred touch, I would add a Mirrycle Mountain Mirror (two, actually) to keep an eye on things behind me (like overtaking cars) and an Incredibell Big Brass bell (the ring tone reminds me of the bike bell my parents had on their Schwinn Tandem).

Now is all of this really necessary? No. Is it overkill? Probably. Do I feel safer at night? Most definitely.

The next installment will cover a selection of different commuter bicycles, with comments on their strengths and weaknesses. Stay tuned.

Bicycle Accidents and Fatalities Statistics

I always say that bicycling is a easy, healthy and safe way to commute to work and to run errands. However, there are those who claim that bicycling, especially in this area, is anything but safe. After a little research, I was able to come up with some interesting statistics that help support my claim.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released their 2007 Traffic Safety Fact Sheets. Among the reports is one that addresses bicyclists and other cyclists. The report states that there were 698 cyclists killed and 43,000 injured in traffic crashes. The numbers sound alarming until you realize that cyclists account for only 2% of traffic fatalities and injuries during this time period. The total number of traffic fatalities for 2007 was 41,059 out of a population of 301,621,000. Of those, 698, or 1.7%, were cyclists. That gives a ratio of 2.31 cyclists killed per one million people. That is slightly more than 1 cyclist killed out of 500,000 people. Your odds of being killed on a bicycle are better than being dealt a straight flush (1 in 72,193.33 ), but less than being dealt a royal flush (1 in 649,740).

Now lets consider the data from Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for motorized vehicles. For 2007, there were 37,248 fatal motor vehicle crashes resulting in 30,401 deaths. That results in 123.49 fatalities per one million people. That means you are 53 times more likely to die in a car accident than you would be killed riding a bicycle.

Now, back to the bicycle injuries and fatalities for a moment. The highest fatality rates where male riders between the ages of 45 and 54 (132 killed, 6.11 fatality rate). Among female riders, the highest fatality rates where in the 35-44 age group (18 killed, 0.84 fatality rate). The highest injury rates were among male riders between the ages of 10 and 15 (8,000 injured, 614.6 injury rate) and among women, it was the same age range with 2,000 injuries and an injury rate of 130.9. The injury rates are high, but taken into consideration the age group in question, it is not alarming or even surprising. After all, this is the age group that is most likely to be involved in BMX, youth mountain bike racing, and general reckless behavior.

According to these data, the location of accidents is almost evenly split between intersections and non-intersections for ages between 10 and 20. Cyclists in the 21-24 age group are three times more likely to be hit at non-intersections than at intersections. For ages 21 and over, the number of accidents at non-intersections outweigh the number of accidents at intersections. The number one reported factor in bicycle accidents is the failure to yield the right of way (20.9%). No reported factors accounted for 37.5% of bicycle accidents, so no reliable way to determine the causes of these accidents. Time of day seems to have little effect on the number of accidents. However, there is a significant increase in the hours between 3:00 p.m. and 8:59 p.m. I am merely guessing here, but that includes the afternoon rush hour traffic and, during the fall to spring, the setting of the sun, both of which may play a factor. Also of interest, light trucks, including SUVs, account for the majority of bicycle related accidents (297) with passenger cars coming in second (242).

Yes, there are risks with riding a bicycle, but the same is true of most every activity from washing dishes to skydiving. There is no way to eliminate all risks, but much can be done to mitigate the risk factors to a reasonable and manageable level. The first and most obvious is to wear a helmet. I know that there is a debate about the effectiveness of helmets to prevent all injuries, but the fact is helmets do help prevent many head injuries that would be otherwise fatal or debilitating.

However, helmet use alone does not make a bicyclist safe, or even safer. Learning proper riding style and obeying the rules of the road plays a much bigger factor to being safe on the road, as does being visible. Headlights and tail lights, reflectors, and brightly colored clothing will help drivers see you better, especially at night or low light conditions (e.g., riding on a tree shaded road). Choosing appropriate routes (e.g., less motorized traffic, slower speeds) will lessen the number of possible incidents. Use of hand signals for lane changes, turns, and slowing/stopping helps you communicate with drivers, as does proper lane positioning. Also, be aware of the most common hazards and how to avoid them.

And to quote Sergeant Esterhaus from "Hill Street Blues", "Hey, let's be careful out there."