E:\LETTERS\AuntGran.TXT rec.bicycles.misc --------------- Make some noise One day while strolling down the center of a recreationway without a thought in my head, I was startled by the whirr of off-road tires to my right: two bike riders were overtaking me. I was only mildly startled, so it was only mildly rude - - but suppose a squirrel in the trees to my right had done something cute and I had swerved in that direction to look? Both riders could have ended up in the hospital or, with only a little bad luck, the morgue. Before you overtake someone, MAKE SOME NOISE. "Hi!" is popular for this purpose when overtaking another bicycle on the road. When overtaking a pedestrian on a recreationway, I like to give a little more information. After experimenting with many phrases, I settled on "I am on your left". This usually elicits a smile and a step to the right. Cyclists who train in a pack often say "left!" or "on your left!" when overtaking. If you address either remard to a random stranger, he will jump to his left. By the way, *always* overtake on the left, unless you are across the pond or in the 5-Boro Bike Tour. On that tour, the cry when overtaking was "Keep Straight!" (It would have been a *much* more pleasant ride if they had told us that the front was being motor-paced to a maximum speed of six miles per hour. For one thing, I'd have worn walking shoes.) --------------- Legal isn't always smart Legal != smart --------------- You learn skills so that you can ride; you don't ride to show off your skills. Don't use a hard-won skill just because it's hard won: use it only when it's easier and safer than the unsophisticated technique you are tempted to use instead. Selecting the best technique for the situation at hand is, perhaps, the hardest-won skill of them all. --------------- thumb test Before every ride, test your tires by putting all four fingers under the rim and pressing down on the tread with your thumb. You should also perform this test before and after inflating your tires, to check whether the air you have been pumping actually went into the tire -- and to calibrate your thumb. There have been a couple of times that I've wished that I were in the habit of performing the thumb test after each rest stop. --------------- The best fluid for hydration There's a lot of discussion on what to drink, what temperature it should be, and so forth -- but the important question is "can you get it inside the patient". The best hydrating fluid is something that you like and will drink lots of. --------------- The word "control" should be expunged from all bike- riding instruction. You can't control any behavior except your own. But if you ask nicely, drivers will nearly always give you what you need. --------------- riding is communication --------------- charging hills in winter --------------- If you frequently freeze water in a plastic container that wasn't designed for it, the expansion of the ice will sooner or later crack the container at the mold mark. You can get around this by filling the bottle a little at a time, tipping the bottle when you put it into the freezer to maximize the surface area of the water. Tipping also keeps the ice from getting a square push. Freezing bottles became much easier after I found a valve-cap that fits the bottles that "spring water" comes in. Disposable bottles also allow me to build up a stock of frozen beverage without buying a lot of California Springs bottles. If a bottle which had been entirely frozen now has a few drops of water in it, pour them out on the ground. They will contain every molecule of salt that was in the water. --------------- A thin plastic sheet over one's shoe makes one's foot strikingly warmer. Just slide the foot into a bread bag, then pull a wool gaiter on to hold the bag in place. Of course, one does need a fresh bag for the trip back - - or maybe in the middle, if you put your foot down a lot. Nobody eats that much bread, but I've found that the orange bags that my newspaper comes in work perfectly, and a summer's worth lasts all winter. In a pinch, one can buy a box of gallon-size twist-tie bags. For wide bags, one needs the sort of gaiter that comes down over the foot. When we wore slot cleats, the cleat would snip a hole in the bag in exactly the right place. I doubt that this would work with the more-complicated cleats now in fashion. (Since my pedals never wore out {replaceable bearings, you know} I still wear slot cleats. In the summer. Winters, I wear walking shoes.) I've used bags to keep my socks dry when wearing sandals in snowy weather. In this case, pull the bag over your heavy socks, then pull knee-hose over the bags to keep them in place. The thinner and less absorbent the hose, the better, so buy the very cheapest. They do come in black. --------------- When using public facilities, have the paper actually in your hand before you commit yourself to using it. --------------- You don't need as much water in the winter as in the summer, but it's at least as important to get enough. Dehydration lowers your heat production, and low blood volume reduces your ability to distribute heat. It's much harder to remember to keep sipping a half- frozen beverage than to remember to sip often when you are sweating like a faucet, so dehydration may actually be more likely in cold weather. Filling the bottle with a boiling beverage sounds like a good idea -- but before the beverage is cool enough to be safe to sip, the valve freezes and you can't get at it. Carry only one bottle in winter; a second bottle will freeze before you finish the first one. If there are no refilling stops, carry the extra in your pannier, well wrapped. Starting with hot water can help. I've found Rubbermaid's square quart bottles good for carrying water and ice in the summer; I can no longer ride far enough to need back-up water in the winter, so I haven't tested them for carrying warm drinks. A large container from which you re-fill your bottle will freeze less than spare bottles, and you don't have to worry about frozen valves. Be sure the bottle is tipped up when you drink, so that ice floats away from the valve. Don't squeeze the bottle or suck on it; any ice near the valve will be carried into it. Blow air into the bottle and let the water flow out This moves ice away from the valve and may melt a molecule of ice. Drink frequently to keep the valve open. --------------- Don't count on water fountains in public parks; they are apt to be turned off in the fall. Once I found that a special event had put the only water fountain in the City- County Athletic Complex behind a paid-admission fence; on a previous occasion I had arrived to find that the other fountain had been ripped out because there was frequently a line to use it. --------------- When stores clear out the sunscreens in the fall, stock up on stick-type sunscreen. An oversized lipstick is a very convenient way to put a layer of grease on exposed skin in cold weather. --------------- On a lonely country road, ride far enough to the left -- this being a multinational forum, make that "close enough to the center" -- that you can make a dramatic and visible move toward the edge of the road. When you hear a car coming, watch it in your mirror until you are quite sure the driver can see you turn your head as if looking back before you move toward the edge of the road. --------------- thumb On wearing sweat pants because tights don't come in your size -- safety pins, too-long pants, tape garters --------------- Pedestrians are stationary, bicycles are pedestrians --------------- But I do make a mean batch of bitter tea, which I drink whenever I want to ride my bike during nap time. . . . Strain it into a pitcher. A few fresh herbs such as basil in the pitcher help a lot with the taste. Refill the saucepan and boil the leaves again. If you have fresh lemon grass, throw a handful of that in too. Strain that into the first batch, let sit on the herbs in the fridge overnight. Pour into bottles, filling each about half full. Adding a little lemon juice or other tart fruit juice at this stage helps a *lot* with the taste. Freeze until wanted, then fill bottle with water and put it into the insulated pannier on the back of your bike until about noon, then put it into a bottle cage and drink it. Guaranteed to keep you awake, particularly when you sweeten it with Smith Brother's Daytime with Caffeine Drops. Which, by the way, taste even worse than the tea.