Musings on Biking

I've been meaning to write a more general post on things I thought while on RAGBRAI.

Like about tandem bikes. You know, bikes that seat two or more people. Generally, that's usually two and not over four, although I did see this thing in one town that seated 24 people and was as wide as a car. It also had a driver and a motor for hills. But, in general, tandem bikes are two people entering into a deal that is not unlike marriage, in my opinion. The one in the back says, "I trust you enough to let you drive." I can see good things about tandem bikes. You never lose your biking partner on RAGBRAI. You can share music. The person in back can just chill and doesn't have to steer at all.

That said, I have no intention of ever riding a tandem bike. Let someone else steer a bike I am riding? Are you crazy? And I certainly don't want to be responsible for steering for someone else. I like my choices and my mistakes to be just mine. And I hear a lot of couples can't do them. They buy them and sell them back. And it'd probably take a lot of communication. The pedals move the same for both spots. It was actually creepy watching some people operating in total sync. They'd stand together, drop together, legs going exactly the same.

But you'd probably get more power on hills.

What else did I think about on RAGBRAI?  I should have written write after I got back. I can't remember anything specific longer than a week.

Oh yes, riding personalities. When I bike, it takes me a little bit to get warmed up, especially in the morning. I'll need like ten minutes or so of not going real fast. And then after that, I'm at my highest energy. In the beginning of RAGBRAI, I was often in front of Mom and Dad. And later in the day, I slow down a little. It becomes more traveling than charging. And on longer days, it then turns to survival.

Dad is like me, except he doesn't need to warm up, he can go fast right out of the gate. I often find myself behind him in the beginning. He too slows a bit as the day gets longer.

Mom... I'd say she is more of a sight-see-er in the beginning of RAGBRAI. She'd toodle along at her own pace, often the last of our party until we started getting near the end of the trail for the day. Dad and I would be slowing down at this point, but Mom gets what Dad refers to as the "horse to the barn" syndrome. She'll explain it as putting on her music or her "happy place" of biking speed or something like that, but the closer we get to being done, the faster Mom goes. One ride we did before RAGBRAI on the Raccoon River Valley Trail, a 72 mile loop, we were on the final path and Mom said she'd slow down as Dad had had enough of that ride. And then she turned her music on and was matching my 20-mile-per-hour tailwind speed. Dad accused her of speeding up.

Now, this ability is more than just the time of day. On the last day of RAGBRAI, we had a time limit. The course was officially closed at 15:00 and our bus was leaving at 14:30. Mom had an agenda. Dad and I were content to let her be first all day.

Back at home, I know why I can't go RAGBRAI speeds around town. There are too many stops, too many obstacles, and a lot of the roads and sidewalks are just bad. Another interesting thing about biking in Ames is careless people who pull through the crossing part of stop signs. Normally, and I understand this, people like to get as close to the road as possible when turning. But, as a biker, I cannot stand people pulling through stop signs. It is dangerous for one. If I'm on the sidewalk, I am not required to stop, they are. But if they don't see me, they could just hit me. And they'd be responsible in court, I'm sure, but I'd probably be the one injured. Especially since I don't wear a helmet. I know, bad me.

And the second annoying thing is that even when I am in no danger of being hit, I cannot cross at the crosswalk when there is a car sitting on it. Say it's at a light or waiting to turn onto a busy street. They can't go. And depending on the sidewalk setup and how close they are to the traffic, neither can I. Sometimes I can ride in front of them. Glaring. Sometimes I walk my bike behind their car. Glaring more. And sometimes I really can't go at all. Nice people will try and rectify their mistake by backing up. Normally I wave at them because even though it was their bad for pulling through, they went out of their way to let me by.

Although I had one person do this and he almost backed into the guy behind him, who honked at him. I looked sheepish when I was waving. Today I came on a truck who was blocking me and he had a red light. I stopped my bike and gave them a look which I think was half consternation and half annoyed amusement. I can't think of how weird it must have been. But eventually, the passenger got the hint and told the driver, who then backed up for me. I saluted as I passed.