System of Up

Being an engineer by nature and training, I have a systematic approach to problem-solving, including those that limit my cycling goals, which lately have been range and mileage. When I bought my new tubeless wheels the goal was to reduce flats to the point I could ride without obsessing about everything on the road that might give me a flat, and get home reliabally.

It took a few tries to get the tires right, but the GP5000 TLs were a home-run. I can now ride without much caring where or when or how bad the surface because they are the toughest tires I have ever ridden, roll VERY well, and as a huge bonus, have a nice plush ride.

Starting last summer I realized the tires and wheels were reliable enough to start doing longer rides, which was very liberating, as we have some great, remote places to ride here, but nowhere you'd want to sit and wait for a friend to pick you up from if $hit happened.

Persists for 4-5 hrs

That worked so well I started hitting a new barrier to long miles - saddle sores. The solution to that problem has mostly been scrupulous hygiene. I always wash my bum now with anti-bacterial soap, and sometimes with Hibiclens, before I put on my bib tights. I've also largely abandoned the Voler brand bib shorts I've ridden for most of the last decade, searching for something that protects me better. (the subject of bib-shorts needs its own post, and I'll do that when I have more experience with my new PI Pro bib-shorts)

I've also boosted my heart support by taking CoQ-10, and spiking my Gatorade with Emergen-C. This combo also helps with cramping and adds a little fuel, so muscle support on the bike is pretty good now, but muscle recovery was becoming a problem with more miles and longer rides.

A couple of weeks ago I realized my cardio and general fatigue were no longer issues with recovery, but my legs just weren't recovering from 50 mile rides every-other day, so I scratched my head and started looking for a solution. That solution turned out to be Muscle Milk. The rice has a little protein in it too (GU does not), but I can actually feel my muscles soak this stuff up in a weaker version of how my calf muscle felt healing up from a bad tear, knitting itself together. It's also pretty great it tastes like of like ice-cream!

Ice-Cream that makes you muscles smile

After setting a new distance record since moving to SoCal 5 years ago on Monday - 73 miles, I rode 52 yesterday, so in 3 days I've ridden 125 miles. I'm in my 60s now, so I'm pretty proud of that, and hope to break my May Is Bike Month distance record from 2012, which I will do on my next ride.

I haven't tried any other protein powder, so perhaps there are even better supplements, but MM is making a huge improvement in muscle recovery for me at the moment, and I wanted to spread the word. If you're new to cycling just know, cycling requires much more protein than weight training.

I did the latter for 20 years before taking up cycling again seriously, and was shocked that cycling required 2-3X as much protein as weight training - mostly on long rides lasting more than 2 hours. A good rule of thumb is 1 gram of protein for every pound of lean body weight. Most professional cycling coaches seem to have adopted this metric now.

I don't know where the next bottle-neck will appear, but right now I am very happy with where I am, which BTW, is atop the Leader Board at my local bike club!

Skydiving for COVID-19

I'm a numbers guy, and always have been. One of the things I learned to do while writing statistical software for Wall St banks is compare statistics to each other to get a better idea of the scale of things. For example, what the US spends on defense is almost exactly our trade deficit. There's no cause and effect there, but it helps one understand the relative scale of these two things.

Skydiving, or bungee jumping, which have about the same risk, gives you 6 chances in a million of dying per jump. So what about COVID-19?

Looking at COVID-19 deaths in the US it struck me that my state, California, which has so far experienced 95 deaths per million people is much better (by no means the best) than NY, NJ, CT, RI which are well over 1,000 chances per million, AKA greater than 1/1000 chance you've already died, and we're only 4 months into this. So what about the future?

I ask this because the USN's "death ship" aircraft carrier has been reporting sailors who had COVID-19 have gotten it again, and this is also being reported by China and European countries. This means NO "Herd Immunity". Like the common cold, the flu, SARs, etc, there's no vaccine because the virus keeps mutating, rendering last year's vaccine useless.

We've already lost more dead to COVID-19 than the Vietnam War, WW-I, Korea and all but WW-II and the US Civil War, but again, we're only 4 months into this. I love liberty as much or more as any other American, but given the risk, and thinking about projecting this out 10, 20, 50, 100 years, we're being complete idiots in managing this risk. If I can trade a loss of privacy for another 20yrs of life, I'm in. Privacy loss is a theoretical threat. COVID-19 is real, present, and urgent.

Lets assume the virus doesn't mutate to make a vaccine useless, as this might happen. We might get lucky. Lets assume it takes 24 months to get a vaccine, so 6X as long as we've been fighting this battle so far. In "bad" places like NY, NJ we're running at a rate of 300 per million people per month, so in 24 months, 7,200 per million. That's more than 1,000 TIMES as deadly as sky-diving.

Assuming people can develop an immunity to COVID-19, but to do so everyone would have to get infected, we'd lose 6% of 350 million people, so 21 MILLION people. That's more than the ENTIRE population of New York.

We have no assurance that a vaccine is even possible. We have no idea what 'Herd Immunity" means for a mortality rate going forward. Other than social distancing, N-95 masks, improving ER techniques, bleach, alcohol, and anti-bacterial soap, most of which have been employed while the current statistics formed, we're pretty much defenseless.

The really bracing fact is, if we stay in the conditions we've been in for the last 4 months, COVID-19 over time will kill a large percentage of humanity. We won't be a planet of 8 billion people, we'll be a planet of 1 billion, or maybe less. With stone-age transportation, The Plague killed 60% of Europe's population. Given Earth's current population, that's almost 5 BILLION dead - and that's assuming stone-age transportation.

Think about it. Our response to date has been absurdly caviler.

You Can't Take it With You

Or can you? Anyone else notice Nestle (oops, I see it's owned by Post, the Raisin Bran people now, hummm)  has stopped making PowerBars? GU is OK, but is crazy expensive, at over $1 per oz in individual containers. What to do? (GU's flask is very, very good btw, in case you're in the market, especially vs Hammer's horrible one)

If priced like GU, this would cost $4,200

I started looking for a more "natural" ride fuel 10yrs ago when challenged by a friend, who carried bananas (half the weight is in the useless peel, but ripe banana does have a Medosa Glycemic Index of  77). So, bananas? NO!!! But what else can be carried with you in a jersey pocket?

The best pre-ride fuel I ever found is waxy/sticky/glutinous rice, which has a MGI of about 90, and has no issues with osmotic pressure on hot days, so no cramping, bloating and gas. You can also add a substantial amount of salt to it, and as with Sushi Rice, which is what it is, you add 3-5 heaping tablespoons of sugar, cutting it in 15-30 minutes after it's done cooking in the steamer. It also has a small amount of protein, which many sports endurance edibles have quietly added, though they sometimes call it "amino acids". ALL protein is made of amino acids.

I'm at 3,000ft of altitude, so I bought a pressure cooker to cook mine. It does a spectacular job!

Toss the slaw and pack in the Nishiki rice

So, Nishiki rice, grown in the Rice Valley just north of Sacramento was a great candidate, but how to carry it? Well, glad you asked, because I hung onto on of those KFC reusable "hockey puck" containers when moving here, and found it back a few weeks ago. Over-fill and press down hard on the lid to make a nice firm rice puck, pop it in the fridge overnight to harden, and eat it (with clean hands) like a hockey puck when you get hungry or stop to fuel up. I've been pleasantly surprised at how well this works.

An alternative packaging might be to make the pucks as described, sprinkle with sugar and bake at 450 degrees in the oven for 5-10 minutes to brown and harden, and then just use Saran Wrap. The heat of baking and added sugar would both increase the MGI of this preparation.

This would NOT require clean hands as the wrap would act as a minimal container. IIRC, Nishiki rice is about $12 for 10lbs, and that's the dry weight, but it can be had for as little as $12 for 15lbs. That means you can buy 15 lbs of this rice for less money than a single 15-serving pouch of GU and 15lbs of Nishiki rice is ~ 162 servings @ 150 calories each, not 100 calories, so it's really ~ 250X as cheap.

Ride fuel from WalMart

Mendosa reports Jasmine rice from Thailand to have a MGI of 109 ± 10! That'll get the snap back in your legs! I suspect WalMart's Super Lucky Elephant brand is the same stuff, and at $21.56 for a 25lb bag, even cheaper than Nishiki. I do like the protection of pesticide laws in California though. BTW, in the MGI, pure glucose like they pump into your veins at the hospital is 100, and used as a reference for everything else. There are other GIs that use "white bread", clearly an idiotic reference as you have no idea what it's made of.

Excerpt from Mendosa Glycemic Index

So, long story long, you CAN take it with you!

PS:
If you want some background on what makes a good ride fuel, here's my years old piece on that.
Cheers!

PPS:
I rode 73 miles yesterday one of these rice pucks, a single GU, and 3 bottles of Gatorade. Yeah, it works.

Liars and Lumens

My wife surprised me last week, riding up behind, and then along side me while I was riding home on a major thoroughfare. She was returning from an errand on the other side of town, checked her iPhone to check out my satellite trace on Garmin LiveTrack, and decided to see how much lag that system had.

Once along side, approaching a stoplight, she reported she'd seen my light a couple miles before at some distance, but NOT the new Lezyne StripDrive Pro 300, but the CygoLite Dice TL50 light I have Velcro-ed to the back of my helmet. Imagine my surprise :O

The very next morning I was just starting out and was hailed by a cyclist who complimented my wonderful taillight. I of course started telling him all about the new StripDrive. He stopped me and told me it was the light on my helmet he was responding to. Imagine my chagrin.

The bottom line is this, I have been amazed at how effective the 50 lumen TL50 is, weighing less than 1oz with the Velcro mount, while the "300 lumen" StripDrive has been a poor substitute for the Lezyne Laser Drive it temporarily displaced. Particularly surprising because the lens on the TL50 spreads its light out horizontally, so it can be seen from extreme off-angles, or when you turn your head and it's mounted on your helmet. This weakens the beam from any given vantage point to achieve a wide field of view. 

Disappointed with the battery-life of my Lezyne Laser Drive taillight in DayFlash mode, I bought the Lezyne StripDrive for its 5hr battery-life in that mode. Rated 300 lumens, vs 250 lumens for the Laser Drive, it should be brighter. In fact, it's nowhere near as bright. I assume for 1-2 nanoseconds one of the StripDrive's LEDs is pushed to 300 lumens (by some mathematical calculation) but to the human eye, the (duration * intensity) is somewhat less than the Laser Drive's 125 lumen mode, which is once again my go-to light. Sometimes though I want its full 250 lumens, even though it shortens battery life to just over 2:30hrs - despite the nonsense on Lezyne's website.

I've found a solution to the problem of lights and phones running low though, I carry a small LIPO battery powered USB charger and a 3-way split chord in my saddle bag (two for $9), or if I have lights and the USB charger to charge up AT THE SAME TIME, I have found a small, lightweight USB charger with a USB-C port to charge the LIPO battery, and a USB-A for the 3-way splitter to charge my lights & phone. There are combined devices, BUT, they can either do something useful for you, OR, charge their own battery. I wanted to do both at the same time, so WA-LA.

They stack like chord-wood

Folding plug's a big plus for stowing

AtTom 3,000 mAh charger is slimmer than my phone

AtTom charger. Who is Tom anyway?

Amazon marvel. They're the Radio Shack of today

Center cable is data + pwr. L & R just pwr

The Yilon AC charger will charge up an iPhone and iPad at the same time with just a bit of warming. It will charge my headlight, taillights, phone and AtTom without breaking a sweat. You probably can't weld with it, but who cares. Either charger will charge up the Lezyne Laser Drive in 45 minutes, about the time you need to regroup at the 100km point on a Century ride.

If you wake up raring to go and find you forgot to charge your phone, you can head out the door and AtTom will charge it while you ride. Nice. These things are really cheap at Amazon Shack. You might want a USB-C to micro-USB cable as well so Yilon can push power to AtTom. Something short and distinctive you can find back in dim light. Oh, I should warn you off the Nekmit USB chargers - they're HUGE. The pics on Amazon are very deceptive.

So, now you can start your own mini power grid and you don't need to mess with FERC. With social distancing putting a damper on being indoors, plugged into a donor AC outlet, having the LIPO-based charger is a game changer. The Yilon might make you a Starbucks hero and even get you laid! Happy days!

Continental GP5000 TL Longevity

I've got a pretty good flat spot across the crown of the tread on my rear 28mm Conti GP500 TL tires now, this after ~ 1,250 miles. The wear dimples are still visible, but by the end of May I will be replacing them (Update: done), as they should have well over 1,500 miles on them.

Note "Chicken Stripe" on cntr tread

I'm perfectly happy to get 1,500 - 1,700 miles on a rear tire, as I have always had a problem with wear on my rear tires, even when running wider tires in the back than in the front. Riding weight for me is 185-190 lbs, which is probably the biggest culprit, as I am only making ~ 120 Strava watts and 225 RWGPS watts on a typical ride.

Had to wipe the dimples with my fingers to find them back

The desert is a very hostile environment for tires, with the usual glass, but also tons of thorns and goat-heads. Heat also wears out tires a lot faster, any kind of tire. Car, truck or bicycle.

Based on historical trends over my last 12 years of riding, I get about half the tire life most people experience, so at least with the 28mm tire in back, expect to get ~ 3,000 miles out of a Conti GP5000 TL.

What I treasure most in a tire here is reliability, and these tires have performed flawlessly. No point pushing a bad bet to save a few bucks and ruin their perfect record. Speaking of bucks, with inner-tubes going for ~ $8-$9 these days, I've now saved enough on inner-tubes to pay for a new tire.

It's worth repeating, I absolutely love these tires now that I have mastered how to put them on and air them up with sealant inside. The ride quality is spectacular, they're very tough, roll better than anything anywhere near their durability, grip extremely well, and have decent wear. Probably going to jinx myself here, but knock on wood, I have yet to have a flat on this tire.

PS: This is how I expected a Conti tire would wear out, with the sidewalls failing. It wasn't until home I noticed the wear dimples were pretty much gone!

Here's a beautiful picture of me taking a break in the shade at Spring Valley Lake yesterday. It's important because it has absolutely no bearing on this post at all, but with all the COVID-19 craziness in our lives, something beautiful and soothing has become as important as social distancing.

High Desert oasis

No ice left in these uninsulated, but smaller, more aero bottles after 1hr. The small one was filled with ice, chilled water, and left in the freezer for an hour before starting. Time for insulated bottles I guess. I have a bit of an obsession with bottles, so I'm sure I can find the perfect pair somewhere in my collection of 30+ bottles. Almost time to break out the big guns - Podium Ice with Aerogel insulation. I bought a pair off-season for $16 each at Amazon.

COVID-19: Killing me softly with Far UVC

The human race has been taking some heavy hits the last 2 months from COVID-19, but we have bigger brains, so FINALLY, some good news. Researchers at Columbia University have spent the last 7 years working on a new spectrum of UV light that kills pathogens, but doesn't damage human skin nor eyes. They're calling it Far UVC, and it's really ingenious. There's also an industrial-scale working product already for sale, called Care222 (222nm is the wavelength of UVC). Didn't I tell you that sunlight kills EVERYTHING?

Scientists have known for decades that germicidal UV light (wavelength around 254 nm) has the capacity to kill viruses and bacteria. Hospitals and laboratories often use germicidal UV light to sterilize unoccupied rooms, as well as other equipment. But conventional germicidal UV light cannot be used in the presence of people as it can cause health problems to the skin and eyes.

In contrast, Far-UVC light, which has a very short wavelength (in the range from about 205 to 230 nm), cannot reach or damage living human cells. But these wavelengths can still penetrate and kill very small viruses and bacteria floating in the air or on surfaces.

Far-UVC lamps are now in production by several companies, although ramping up to large-scale production, as well as approval by the Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency, will take several months. At between $500 and $1000 per lamp, the lamps are relatively inexpensive, and once they are mass produced the prices would likely fall, Brenner said.

As for me, I'm getting my radiation the old fashion way putting in another 120+ mile week, while finding excuses not to do a video of how to wrap brake cable with wire so you can fish it through internally routed frames. (did I say that out loud? :O)

Also, finally, I got some cable sheathing, so I'll do a review of all that and show that method of routing cables through frames too.

Smile, there's hope for humanity after all! 

Cheers!