Useless ride stats

The weather is beautiful in the San Francisco Bay Area. The hills are green, the trees and flowers are in full bloom (along with my allergies), the roads are dry and cyclists of all kinds are out in full force to enjoy the great outdoors.

I cycled in with Java Man and BionX Boy this morning. I guess I must have felt good because I blew the wheels off of Java Man, who usually beats me in. BionX Boy, with his electronically augmented bicycle, managed to hang on, but he ran at least two red lights to catch up to me. Kate on her Strida and I chatted as we waited at a red light.

Inspired by Fixed Gear's daily "Useless Ride Stats", I hereby present my own day in numbers:

26: Miles I intended to bike this morning.

4.5: Miles I actually rode after I got up an hour late.

30: Gear combinations on my road bike.

5: Gears I actually use in a typical ride.

28: Bikes that got off the train at Palo Alto.

3.719: Price of one gallon of regular gasoline at the Shell station across the street from the Palo Alto train station.

$103.65: The high price of a barrel of crude at the New York Mercantile Exchange today.

48: Temperature this morning in degrees Fahrenheit.

5,000: Cyclists organizers of the Davis Bike Parade at the University of California-Davis hoped for to break the world record for the largest bike parade.

1,838: Cyclists who actually showed up for the bike parade last Saturday. Read the story here

4: Women openly staring at my Chrome clad legs this morning. They were Brenda (no bike), Amelia (Specialized Hard Rock), Lori (90s LeMond road bike) and a redhead (Bianchi) whose name I didn't get.

Now for some links out:

• All of the gadget blogs (such as WIRED, but elsewhere also) seem to be excited about Master Lock's handcuff bike locks. They're not exactly a brand new product -- I've seen them in bike shops for at least a half decade and probably longer. I think they look cool, too, but every review I've seen say they're kind of useless for actual bike security.


• Lifehacker gets the word out on how to stay warm while cycling. Spring has indisputably sprung in sunny California, but I know there's still plenty of snow and ice across the U.S. upper Midwest. The Colorado Front Range got socked with a wonderful upslope storm this last weekend, too!


• Cute picture at Velorution.


• Velochimp: Let Alberto Ride. And the counterpoint from the Virtual Musette.


• Is 2008 the Year of the Bike?


• SOmething about folding wheels.

Have a good week, all!