the tao of cycling: psi and a ps about hydroplaning

Saturday, July 9, 2011

psi and a ps about hydroplaning

I do believe that properly inflated tires make a significant difference (as compared to those that are woefully underinflated) when one is riding a bicycle.
especially up a hill.
say, the back side of big mountain.
especially when you're already 65 miles into your ride and you are a wee bit tired.

of course I speak from experience.

I started my morning with a deadline and a flat tire. a phone call and a hurried flat-fix later, I was out the door and on my way.
which ultimately led to my woefully underinflated tire 65 miles later.
yes, the number one rule of changing a flat tire is to run your finger along the inside of the tire itself to see if there's a little thorn/piece of glass/sharp something/owie that poked its way into your tube.
yes, sometimes yours truly, when in a hurry, forgets the number one rule of changing a flat tire.

what kills me is just how long it took me to figure out that my tire was bulging out and gripping 5 times as much pavement as it needed to, dramatically (and exhaustingly) increasing my rolling resistance.

when I finally had to pull over and stop halfway up my climb because I was exhausted, I just happened to notice my incredibly soft front tire. geez. it was hot, I was beat, and I wasn't about to change the darn thing out so I just pulled out my cartridge and pumped the tire up, praying it would get me home.
at the top of the hill the tire still felt firm enough, and at the top of the next hill it felt good enough to get me home, so I let it be and cruised on home.
where I proceeded to do a little research into tire inflation, and learned that I've probably been overinflating my tires for quite some time.
if you'd like to check your own process out, here are some helpful pages:

bicycle tires and tubes with sheldon brown

bicycle quarterly

and to just top off my educational day, I learned (from the first link above) that I don't need to worry about my bike ever, ever hydroplaning.
whee!
what a great day.

off to check that my tires are inflated to 96 psi in the front and 104 psi in the back . . .

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the Male Ego

The other day I was coming down a canyon in my drop bars (two years ago I would have said, 'what's a drop bar?'), working hard, when I came up on two guys who were also heading downhill but at a more leisurely pace. I passed them, said hello as I did so, and pulled back into the bike lane. a few minutes later they went flying past me, faces looking dead ahead, not a single bit of acknowledgment that I even existed on this planet let alone was involved in and enjoying the same sport they were.
I have to attribute this to the male ego. what else can it be? now I know we all have egos, myself included. and mine even shows its ridiculous little head once in a while, or perhaps more often. but the difference between mine and say, those of certain men on bicycles, is that I KNOW mine exists and I can LAUGH at mine. I know my ego was quite excited to pass those guys, and I could also smile because I knew if the men had really been working like I was, they would have kicked my butt down the hill.
I think I pissed them off.
and I'm sure I will be sharing with you much more of my thoughts about the male ego . . .

a little history

I was married, and I had a mountain bike which I rarely rode. we separated, I moved out, and four months later someone stole my bike. the next spring, 2005, I bought myself a new mountain bike. I rode occasionally, and in april 2006 I rode in my first century, the Cactus Hugger in St. George, Utah. I made it 54 miles on that mountain bike, and it took me about 6 hours. I think that included the rest stops where I prayed that someone would steal my bike again . . .
in june 2006 I started riding my mountain bike five mornings a week, a 45-55 minute loop that was intended to be all about exercise. and what I found was that I loved the quiet, peaceful morning full of bird chatter and barely breaking sunrises. by that fall I was hooked, and began considering the purchase of a road bike. I rode up emigration canyon for the first time that Labor Day of 2006, panting and plowing along on my trusty (heavy) bike, and a month later I was the proud owner of my own road bike: I had become a two-bike girl!
a 17-week-long "power camp" over the winter and a handful of new friends kept bicycling front and center in my life, and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was ready to hit the pavement. I rode my first century the end of april, when I again went to St. George and completed that Cactus Hugger. it took me about 7 hours, but this time I rode the entire 100 miles with about 9300 feet of vertical gain. woo hoo!
I started riding canyons around our area, emigration and millcreek, city creek, big cottonwood, little mountain and big mountain, and once--yes, only once--little cottonwood.
then in september of 2007, I rode from Logan, Utah, to Jackson, Wyoming, in the slightly infamous LOTOJA race. I rode, I did not race. and I completed the thing, crediting my good training buddies, the incredibly perfect weather, my support team, and an amazing convergence of all things positive in the universe.
I put in about 3500 miles last season, and as of today, july 19, 2008, I have about 1700 in, adding to it every day.
I have again signed on to ride the LOTOJA race, and my goal is to have just somewhere near as great a ride as I did last year. oh, and to have someone fun to talk with along the way as I got incredibly bored last year . . . star valley is still a nightmare scene in my biking memories . . .
and here is a picture of the machine that has helped me reclaim my life.