A bit more on lighting systems:

I want to focus on rechargeable lights in this post.

There are three main types of rechargeable systems currently available, and several battery technologies.

Let’s consider light types first. These group by the thing that actually makes the light.

Incandescent lamps: (light bulbs) usually halogen bulbs. This is just a high tech light bulb. It has a filament, and eventually, the bulb will burn out. Halogen bulbs are reasonably bright, and emit a good white light. The problem is that they tend not to do it for very long when mated to a battery. In other words, they are not very energy efficient. There are some very good halogen systems out there. But typical burn times are in the two-hour range.

HID emitter: HID stands for High Intensity Discharge. Think of this as an especially high tech arc light. These are incredibly bright lights. The light is well into the blue end of the spectrum. They are very high-energy output. When mated to some pretty expensive battery systems, HID lights can burn for as much as four hours. Then they have to be recharged. These also tend to be very expensive.

LED: or Light Emitting Diode. This technology just keeps getting better and better. These lights have gotten to the point of being more than adequate for the serious commuter or tourist. I’ve done all night rides with them, and continue to find them a surprising value. The LED is a solid-state device. It uses remarkably little energy to produce the light. One caution, the overdriven ultra brights are sensitive to cooling. Look for lights with good heat sinks. Ideally metal casings.

One note of caution on LED type lights. They emit well into the blue end of the spectrum. This means that the beam is really absorbed in rain, and backscatter glare can be a real problem in rain or foggy conditions.

Batteries:

There are several factors in rating batteries, cost, weight, “charge density,” lifetime, level of maintenance. Most of these are self explanatory, but “charge density” may not be familiar to you. A brief discussion follows, but for those of you not so technically inclined, a higher charge density means it gives more power over a longer time.

Charge Density Explained:

Key terms:

• Voltage: Electromotive force. Unit = Volt
• Current: How much charge is moving. Unit = Ampere (or Amp)

Batteries are electro-chemical storage devices. As such it has long been normal to rate them according to two factors. The first is output voltage. This is a function of the number of cells in the battery’s construction, and the type of cell. Typical voltage per cell is around 1.6 volts. This can vary depending on the chemistry of the cell in question.

The second rating is a current-time rating. For larger batteries this would be AmpHours. A ten AmpHour battery would be capable of delivering 10 Amps for one hour, at it’s rated voltage. Or 1 Amp for 10 hours.

Naturally, in the wonderful world of bicycling, real specifications such as this are hard to obtain. But generally, when I state that a battery type has a high charge density, I am referring to more AmpHours (or AmpMinutes) for a given battery weight.

Alkaline: These are disposable batteries with good power to weight output. You find them in just about every kind of disposable battery light.

Lead Acid Sealed: Rechargeable. Lower cost. Shorter total life. Heavy for the charge density. Very sensitive to deep cycling. (If you want it to last, don’t go close to total discharge)

Nickel Cadmium (NiCad): Rechargeable. Medium cost. A bit longer service life. Slightly less sensitive to deep cycling. Last best if regularly charge cycled. (they like to be used. Shelving them for long periods of time shortens the useful life. Also, do not store partially discharged.)

Nickel Metal Hydride: Rechargeable. More costly than NiCads, but with improved performance. Less sensitive to deep cycling. Best if cycled frequently. Good charge density.

Lithium (Li-ion): Rechargeable. Relatively expensive (but cost is coming down on these) Light weight with extremely good charge density per weight. Best if charge cycled frequently. Do not store partially discharged. Best if recharged immediately after use. Very sensitive to deep cycling.

One last caveat: No battery lasts forever. With good care, Lead Acid sealed batteries can last three to four years. Most of the higher tech types are good for four to five years use. But be advised! The battery is the most expensive component in the system. Replacing it will cost more than half the price of the total system, sometimes as much as two thirds of the system price.

Those are the factors. Pick a system with the type of light and battery that best suit your riding style and habits.

My personal current favorite is an ultra bright LED powered by a Li-ion battery.

Stuff from Waynesville

Here are a few shots from last weekend's Waynesville tour. Please note the elevation. This was not the highest point in our rides. But it sure was purty.

I'm afraid that's all, folks. I don't usually take many pics, and my riding partners were camera shy. Most I can say is, ya'll shoulda been there!

Tomorrow, more technical info on lights.

Lights for the Nights

Go out and ride at night!? On the road!? Isn’t that, like really dangerous!?

There are risks in everything. Every year in the US, something like 200,000 people are injured in the bathroom, while in 2008 only 52,000 bicycle related injuries were fair comparison. Everyone goes to the bathroom, and not everyone rides a bike. On the other hand the overwhelming majority of deaths occur in bed. So stay out of bed, and out of the bathroom and you’ll be okay. Right?

Yes, I’m trying for a little humor there, but the point remains, most situations are as dangerous as you make them. Nothing is 100% safe.

I’ve ridden literally thousands of miles in the dark, in the country, in the city, in bad weather and good.

Here’s what I’ve learned about night time cycling.

• Good lights are essential, Front and Rear
• There is no such thing as being too visible
• Reflectors and more reflectors.
• Stay on the gray
• Low angle headlights give you better vision, high mounts make you more visible to others.
• More caution is required

Let’s examine those points. First off, good lights. I can’t recall ever hearing anyone complain that they had too much light to ride with. I used to recommend only rechargeables, or very high end generator driven units. Things have changed. Each year seems to bring out more and better units. One principle still remains true. If you go cheap, you won’t be able to see.

I really like the Cateye HL-EL 530. It’s a single, ultra bright LED, with a terrific burn time and light more than adequate for night riding.

CygoLight and Sigma both make some surprisingly strong rechargeables. Note: There are some issues concerning rechargeable lighting systems. I’ll discuss these in a post next week.

Among the rechargeables, I tend these days to go with the LED type in favor of their long burn times.

My old standby is my Schmidt Dynohub and the pair of Lumotec E6 lights on my tourist. Never a need to recharge or find new batteries, reliable. Downside, the occasional bulb change in the dark, and very expensive.

For a tail light, I am in love with the Planet Bike Super Flash. The thing is incredibly bright. It is an LED light, so it must be mounted with care. LEDs are most visible in only a narrow band, so you want the light pointed back at the cars, not pointed down, or up.

No such thing as being too visible: I want a driver, regardless of the direction of approach, to think, “What on earth is that!” Use lots of reflectors. Reflective vests or sashes, along with ankle bands are about the minimum. Those dorky wheel reflectors are actually a good item. That reflectorized tape stuff, applied liberally around the bike is a good idea.

I like to use a pair of the ankle bands around my hands to aid in signaling. I’m working on a garment for just this purpose. It would consist of two sleeves, with a connecting elastic strap. Each sleeve would have a forward and rearward facing reflective arrow, running the entire length of the sleeve. (If you want to put this idea into production and make a gazillion dollars, be my guest. If it already existed, I’d buy it!)

Stay on the Gray: Things look different at night. I know that sounds like a total Homer of a statement, but you won’t believe how much different until you get out there. Go slower at first.

Why “Stay on the gray? Your headlights will cast shadows. Pavement appears gray under lights. The black spots might be a tar stain, or a deep pothole, or a very large oil slick. You won’t know until you hit it. But why find out the hard way? Avoid the dark spots on the road.

Low Angle vs High mount headlights: Lights that are mounted low on the bike (say on the fork blades) throw the road into sharper relief, high lighting rocks, pot holes, and other possible hazards. Lights mounted on the handle bars increase how visible you are to other traffic.

Incidentally, you won’t be able to read cue sheets, or instruments, unless you have a good light on your helmet or forehead. I’ve found the two very good uses for helmet or head mounted lights. First, they let you read cues and instruments. Second, and more importantly, they can help you stay on the road by “burning through” the dazzle from an oncoming car’s high beams. You look down and to the side of the road. Your helmet helps block the intense oncoming light. Your helmet light illuminates the edge of the road, showing you where you are.

Finally, Want a good place to test your systems? Come on out on my Wednesday Night Path Ride. We go every week, starting from Bicycles Unlimited. Ride starts at 7:00 (sharp). No ride if raining at ride time. Lights required until Spring. This is a relatively short (about an hour) recreational paced ride, on the unlit, paved trails here in Peachtree City. There will usually be lots of other folks around, so if you do have a problem, you can identify it, and we’ll get you home.

Back to the Present

Updates on Current Projects:

General Info: I’m having just a little difficulty getting schedules straight. Please bear with me. I have a couple of personal issues that are making schedule setting just a wee tad difficult.

Nights Under Lights: How about an attempt at this on Tuesday 20 October? Here’s the plan. We meet at Bicycles Unlimited. We’ll plan to do about a one hour road ride.

Lighting Requirements: Good Strong Headlight and a strong red tail light.

Clothing: Dress for the weather. Reflective vests or sash and reflective ankle bands are required.

Ride Style: Group will stay together.

Pace: Low Moderate. Likely about a 13 mph rolling average. (see the last post on averages)

Dawn Patrols: We’ve done these in the past and had a lot of fun doing it. The idea is similar to “Nights Under Lights.” Night riding. But there are a couple of twists.

Sooner of later every tourist will have to deal with night riding and sleep depriviation. So why not set up conditions where we can experience both, under somewhat controlled circumstances?

Dawn Patrols will be on some Sunday mornings. We’ll alternate between Fayetteville and Peachtree City for start points. The IHOP in Fayetteville, and the Original Pancake House in Peachtree City.

We’ll start very early in the morning, well before dawn, and go riding on long loop. The loops will be designed to get us to a reliable coffee stop at just about dawn. From there is should take about another hour to return to the start.

Once back to the start a group breakfast is entirely optional.

Likely, we’ll start these in December.

Note: When we’ve done these in the past we have gradually set the start times earlier for each ride. Eventually, we’ll get out there at something like 04:00.

Let’s Agree on Some Terminology

It sometimes seems that cyclists are bigger liars than fishermen. Usually this refers to boasts of average speeds, or mighty feats of climbing. We all hear these bench racing stories. Usually something like, “Yeah, it was a good ride. We were doing (fill in improbable speed) all the way.” Or, “Oh yeah, we usually average (insert intimidating number) on that ride.”

This is not helpful in determining whether a given ride is doable by a given rider. It gets worse. I know of riders who deliberately reset their cycle computers at the end of a warm up section of a ride. For that matter, most cycle computers only report “rolling average.” They do not account for time spent stopped and waiting at intersections or on rest stops.

It’s possible that some riders honestly don’t understand averages. It’s kind of simple, they look at their computer and see 19 or 21 for a good long stretch. That sounds good. They know they can hit that speed, so it must be their average. Averages don’t work that way. In order to hold an average of, say 15 mph, one must spend most of the time on a ride above that speed. Oops.

Overall Average Speed: This one is simple. First, take the total time of the ride. This is all of the time, from the moment the wheels start turning, to the moment that the destination is reached. This includes time spent at traffic signals, time spent at rest stops, every second between the start of the ride and the end. This total time is from the beginning of the ride to the arrival at the end.

Example: A ride of 60 miles. If each and every mile of the ride is ridden at exactly 15 miles per hour, then the rolling average is 15 mph. That would mean a trip time of exactly four hours. But suppose the rider stops twice for ten minutes to refill water bottles, spends an additional ten minutes waiting at traffic signals, and take a 30 minute lunch break. Now the total ride time is Five Hours. Simple division will show that a 60 mile ride, done in 5 hours, is done at an over all average of 12 mph.

It helps to remember that time spent at 0.0 mph really lowers the overall average. If a rider travels at 20 mph for one minute, and is completely stopped for one minute, the overall average is 10 mph.

Elevation Gain: This one is probably not used as much as it should be. It’s fairly simple. The “gain” of a given ride is the total amount of climbing on the ride. We don’t count the descending because it doesn’t take an effort to go down. If, for example, a ride was a loop of ten miles, with most of the loop being perfectly flat, and there was only one hill in the loop, then the height of that hill would be the total gain of the ride. Obviously, the rider would not be higher at the end than at the beginning of the ride. But if the hill was 100 feet tall, then the “gain” for the ride would be 100 feet. If the rider did the loop twice, the “gain” would be 200 feet.

Percentage of Grade: This is another area that seems to generate some amusing fish stories. One specific instance I’ll mention. Local cycling folklore often recounts a particularly long and steep hill near Luthersville. I have been repeatedly told about this two mile long climb at a 10% grade. I have to chuckle. Read on to find out why.

Definition: Grade Percentage is defined as rise over run. That means the total height climbed is divided by the total distance it took to do it. So, if a climb gained 100 feet, in a distance of 2,000 feet, the percentage would be 5%.

Put another way, a 10% grade rises one foot for every ten feet of forward travel.

So… If a grade was actually 10%, and was actually two miles long it would have a rise of 0.2 miles. Since a mile is 5,280 feet, that means the hill in question would be 1,056 feet high. Stone Mountain, for purposes of comparison is only 750 feet above the surrounding terrain, and it is visible for many miles around. Since we can not see the towering peak near Luthersville, it stands to reason that either the grade, or the length of the climb are being exaggerated. In fact, both are.

I mention these because grade percentage, and elevation gain are useful information in planning routes and determining one’s fitness to attempt a particular ride.

One last note: Touring is not about speed. It’s about getting there. Usually, a tourist is carrying a lot more stuff than a race type rider. So touring is about persistence, strength, courage, adaptability, and (hopefully) fun!

Planting the Seed of an Idea

Here’s a thought. Every time I’ve ridden on the Blue Ridge Parkway, I’ve had an incredible time. Many of those times have been awesome adventures, or truly epic rides.

I’ve done a lot of them. But I’ve never ridden the entire Parkway, and I’ve never done it at one time. So think on this. What about a tour of the entire Parkway, north to South?

It’s possible to take Amtrak from Atlanta to Charlottesville, VA. The cost is a bit over $100 for one person. Allowable in the fare is 50 pounds of checked luggage, and 50 pounds of carry on.

The Charlottesville Amtrak station is just 21 miles from Rockfish Gap, the northern entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway. An easy ride once the bike is assembled. (Remember that checked luggage?)

The Parkway is 469 miles from Rockfish Gap to Cherokee, Ga.

Tourists would have to leave the Parkway for lodging and services.

To do this at an enjoyable pace, taking time to sightsee, and explore, we would have to plan on doing the trip in 7 to 10 days.

We would have to promote rides home from Cherokee at the end of the tour.

Think late Summer or early Fall of 2010.

Does this sound interesting?

Ride Report: Great Tour!

So, it was a much smaller group than we had originally planned. That meant we had to improvise our itinerary a bit. There was more automotive driving than I would have liked, but some superb quality riding was the keynote.

Day 1: October 1. We drove to Dillard, in Rabun county, Georgia. We used the Dillard house as a base for this leg. We rode from Dillard down through Clayton, and to Tiger. From Tiger we rode down old GA-441, and turned onto the Lake Rabun Road. We followed the road along Lake Rabun and down to Seed Lake before reversing course and riding back.

This is a part of the “Funnest Road Ride in Georgia” route. It is an exceptional cycling ride. The scenery is loaded with mountain lake views and spectacular lake front houses. The road is tight and twisty, lots of fun to ride, with little traffic. There wasn’t much climbing on this day, just enough to get the legs working.

Then we had an exceptional dinner at the Dillard House, before turning in. If you haven’t had the pleasure of dining at the Dillard House, you have missed a treat. You fenter the spacious dining room, are seated, and they bring the food. Lots of food. Incredibly delicious food!

As we ate, we were treated to the sun setting over the mountains. Superb.

Day 2: October 2. We drove to Waynesville, N.C. We were able to check into the hotel early, so we were set to ride early in the day. The weather was cloudy and threatening, so we simply explored the Waynesville area. This is a fantastic mountain town nestled in the Cashier range of the Southern Great Smokey Mountains. The terrain is anything but flat. After some riding we rode into town, and dismounted to walk the bikes along the sidewalks and play “tourist.”

That was when we had one of those amazing events that make cycle touring such a wonderful adventure. We were passing a realtor’s office. Jonnie, who ran the office, greeted us. She asked if we’d like to park the bikes in her back room while we walked and shopped. She told us her daughter was, at that moment, doing a tour from Blowing Rock to the coast. Amazing!

After wandering through some of the more interesting shops (do not miss Mast General Store!), and getting a bite to eat at a sidewalk bistro, we retrieved our bikes.

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon riding and exploring west of town. Then we went to Maggie’s Galley for dinner. This is an amazing place. You have to know where it is to find it. It’s built from a collection of rescued primitive log cabins. The atmosphere is kind of funky, but warm and friendly. Odd for a spot in the mountains, Maggie’s Galley serves some incredible seafood. I’m particularly partial to their seafood chowder, and their twice baked potatos.

Day 3: October 3. Still in Waynesville. Since the lack of riders and support drivers forced the change in plans we made the most of it. Waynesville is in the heart of the Cashiers, and is a great location for a base. We chose to ride the infamous “Sunburst Loop.”

Why infamous? I’ve taken a fair number of people on this loop. I’ve usually brought them back drenching wet and hypothermic. This was the day that ended the jinx. The weather was spectacular. Severe clear, with a temp around 48 degrees at ride time. We climbed. Climbing warms you. The sun rose higher as we climbed. It got warmer, and we shed some outer layers. In a run of 17 miles we gained 3,500 feet. At that point we intersected the Blue Ridge Parkway, and turned north.

The seeing was outstanding. We rode to Devil’s Court House, and dismounted to climb the trail up to the overlook on top of the rocks. We were able to see peaks in North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee from the top.

A bit past Devil’s Courthouse, the route goes over Richland Balsam, the highest point on the Parkway, at an elevation of 6,047 feet.

After the “Court House” we continued north, past looking glass, Grave Yard Fields, Pigeon Gap, and ultimately to Mount Pisgah. We had a snack at the service area at Mount Pisgah. Then we reversed course. We rode back to the intersection with US-276. The descent down 276 is awe inspiring!

The pizza, stout, and cheesecake at Nick and Nate’s was pretty good too!

Day 4: October 4. This was going to be a big day. We got up early in order to get one more ride in before returning home.

What a ride! We started from Waynesville, and rode south to the saddle of Balsam Gap, climbing all the way. From the Gap we turned onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and south. It’s a steady climb all the way to Water Rock Knob. The section from Balsam Gap to Water Rock Knob is the steepest prolonged grade on the Parkway. It’s about ten miles long, and gains about 3500 feet. The view at Water Rock Knob is amazing. You have a 270 degree panorama of the Smokies laid out before you.

Departing from Water Rock Knob and returning to Waynesville is a treat. It’s 14 miles of uninterrupted descending back to the town. Chilly, but amazing. The Parkway is so well graded and banked that braking is almost unnecessary. The rider just finds that the bike will hold 30 to 35 mph, and will take the turns just fine at those speeds. Not to be missed.

I have to add one more note. Riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway is a treat. The park Rangers, in particular, are great. More than once I’ve had one or another tell me, “We’re proud of our cyclists.” They really make you feel welcome.