Filling cracks, climbing little hills.

Today’s ride: 20 miles of picking up missing streets, and a slight return (voodoo child) to hills.

I have no idea what this could be. That could be a mouth bottom right, I guess…

Things I learned:

  1. I need to ride more hills. A tiny bit of the end of Lankershim was a challenge.
  2. It’s really easy to miss streets. I’ve been consciously trying to fill in everything, and I’m still missing streets less than a mile from me! 
Seen here: missing streets.

I need to start making maps before I go so I can pick up stragglers and and reasonable hills along the way.

Rorschach tests, mile adjustments

Cartoon dog wearing a turtleneck and smoking a pipe, or hand reaching from the grave for Santa’s boot? You be the judge.

I like the antenna on top of the dog’s head.

And’s here’s a rough guess of which parts of this ride were new-to-me roads.

I guessed that there are are 3,200 miles of road in the San Fernando Valley, but I based that on a report from the City of Los Angeles that doesn’t include other cities. No Burbank, no San Fernando, no Glendale. New guess: 3,400 miles.

So, how many miles are we talking about here?

I had no idea how many miles of road there are in the San Fernando Valley, so I decided to try and look it up. The most recent information I could find is from this 2008 report. It says:

The City of Los Angeles has approximately 6,500 miles of … [paved] streets divided into two geographic areas, Metropolitan (53 percent) and the San Fernando Valley (47 percent). It is the responsibility of the Bureau of Street Services to maintain all streets in a perpetual good to excellent condition.

47 percent of 6,500 is 3,055. I’m sure there are more streets now than there were ten years ago, so let’s call it 3,200. I don’t have any way to figure out what percentage I’ve completed, but it’s not anywhere near that!

The Smiling Man Loses His Hat – AKA “My new project makes me go on weird rides”

Tonight’s ride looks like a smiling at lost his hat.

Ride map

I hear you asking: “Why the weird ride?” Here’s the thing: I’m a guy who repeats himself a lot. I find something I enjoy, and I NEVER CHANGE IT. Or I change it so slowly that it doesn’t feel like it’s changing.

So, I’m changing that. Two things that made me decide on this project:

  1. Strava has a “Heat Map” function; it shows all the streets from every ride you’ve logged. More common streets glow brighter (that’s why it’s called a heat map) but all I care about is the log of all streets.
  2. I read this post about a woman who plans to ride on every road in Alaska.

I’ll never ride every road in California. I’ll never even ride every road in Los Angeles. But I can ride every road in the San Fernando Valley. Will it take a long time? Sure. But I have no time limit. Right now I’m just riding on streets I don’t remember using, but pretty soon I’m going to have to start actually planning these rides or I’m going to leave a bunch of short chunks all over the place.

This is what I’ve got so far:

Heat map

And this is roughly what I added today:

New Roads

I have no idea how many miles of roads there are in the Valley. At least five, that’s for sure.

Let’s show off!

Tonight was less of a ride for exercise and more of an excuse for Brian and I to compare our freshly painted bikes. Mine is made to be really visible: all shiny yellows and oranges. His is Stealth Bike: matte black EVERYTHING.

My favorite part of tonight’s ride is where it looks like I’m flipping you off. (I’m not.)

A Geometry Lesson

When someone talks about a bike’s geometry, they’re talking about how the bike is set up to fit the rider. Frame size is a huge part of it, but other things like seat height and handlebar position make a big difference as well.  People who like to go fast tend to set up bikes aggressively so they can hunker down and be really aerodynamic. People who are just riding for fun (and old fat folks like me), usually prefer a more casual, upright style.

My new bike originally belonged to someone much taller than me. Everything was set to “Big… no, BIGGER.” Today’s lesson (yes, it’s my lesson, not yours) was “if your handlebars are too far away from you’re body, you’re not going to be comfortable.” My stem (that’s the piece that holds the handlebars to the top tube of the fork) is way too large. I did most of the ride with the middle of my fingers on the handlebars. Not comfy.

But other than that the bike rides well. I just need to replace that stem (part is already ordered!) and figure out where to mount a lock and a pump. Then she’s ready for a proper long ride!

13 mile ride through Toluca Lake and Burbank

First test ride notes!

  • The clipless pedals are set a lot tighter than my old bike. DIDN’T FALL DOWN!
  • If you don’t tighten the bolts on the handlebar stem, it can and will turn independently of the fork! DIDN’T FALL DOWN AGAIN!
  • The seat was way too high! NO HIGH-SEAT GROIN DAMAGE!
  • The chain is slipping like crazy! Could be the chain is too long, or it could be a worn cassette. HOPING FOR A TOO-LONG CHAIN!

So, back to the shop tomorrow for fine tuning.

 

Also: It’s mighty pretty.