Killing COVID-19

In my last post I made a claim that BENZALKONIUM CHLORIDE probably kills COVID-19. I am happy to report that I have found solid confirmation of this claim by the Canadian Government.


Benzalkonium Chloride kills COVID-19. It's found in most common antibacterial soaps. This was also very interesting to me, confirming that corona viruses are actually EASY to kill. 

Coronaviruses are enveloped viruses. This means they are one of the easiest viruses to kill with the appropriate disinfectant product when used according to the label directions.

Walmart's house brand Anti-bacterial soap - also  kills COVID-19

Note that hydrogen Peroxide (typically a 3% bleaching agent), "bleach" (sodium hypochlorite), alcohol and the ingredients in Clorox's disinfectant wipes are in the list too. Usually, a 50% solution of Ethanol (not commonly found, except at drug stores) is as effective as 60% Isopropyl alcohol, so look for ethanol if isopropyl isn't available. Bacardi 151 should work beautifully! :)

 Chlorhexidine gluconate also kills COVID-19. Worth noting here, chlorhexidine gluconate has a wonderful property, unlike most items on this list which kill almost everything on contact, it soaks into your skin and continues to kill for up to 4 hours - which makes it my favorite road-rash soap.Walgreens sells my favorite version of this soap as it's cheaper and smells better.

Optimal Immune System Support

It's been 10yrs now since I dipped a toe into the "Smoothie" craze, and it turned out not to be a craze with me at all, but a fundamental way of getting excellent nutrition to reduce inflammation and optimize my immune system. To that end I am posting my smoothie recipe, which has evolved a bit over the last 5 yrs.

The basic recipe, which has been stable for the last 10 yrs is...

1. Spinach stuffed down into the bottom of the blender & packed tight
2. Florida's Natural OJ with calcium & vitamin D, poured till just over the top of the spinach
3. Dried cranberries sprinkled over that - about 1/2 a cup of Mariani's
4. Wyman's wild blueberries to the top of the blender jar, 2-3 cups
5. Bananas, 1-2 for sweetness, creaminess, and potassium

Wild blueberries are smaller, so a greater % of their weight is skin, which is were everything good in blueberries (and almost all fruit) resides. Any wild blueberry brand will do, but Wyman's is pretty universally available here in California. Bananas are pretty much a sugar cube, but also stabilize the Ph of the mix and add a nice creamy mouth feel. After blending you should see tiny bubbles rise to the surface. This is the calcium in the spinach or kale reacting to the vitamin C and other acids in the fruits. Without this acid the human body cannot absorb the minerals in leafy greens (or from any other source for that matter). Use whatever brands you prefer, I just wanted to be specific about what I use.

There is one variation on this basic recipe I have used for years. When strawberries are in season, and the price drops below $1 a pound, I love to add strawberries & kale, the kale in place of part or all of the spinach. Strawberries & Kale go together like PB & J, and provide a nice change in the vitamin profile. Everything else stays the same.

I made an addition to the basic recipe 5 yrs ago when I ran low on OJ and had some POM on hand. I added a cup of POM in place of OJ, and that change definitely and firmly put my smoothie in front of any amount of Ibuprofen for controlling swelling, and the aches & pains I felt the day after a ride. I have also tried POM stand-alone, and it didn't help much, so it is in combination with the antioxidants and anti-inflammatories of everything else that it works well (EVERYTHING in this smoothie is a very powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory except the banana).

About a two months ago I decided to try adding Elderberry to my smoothies after trying the gummies and noting yet another reduction in swelling, aches & pains after riding. Typically on days I ride I take a gummie an hour before and immediately after rides, but I'm also adding 30-50mg of liquid Elderberry extract per serving to my smoothies now, and that has again improved the mix, so add to the basic recipe...

1. Pomegranate juice. I prefer Bolthouse's brand, but POM is excellent as well
2. Elderberry juice extract, 50mg per smoothie serving

 AFAICT, everything that is an anti-inflammatory is also an antioxidant, and immune system booster, as inflammation is a root cause of immune system impairment and cancer. Linus Pauling won his 1st Nobel Prize for work in this area, and later put vitamin C on the map by speculating it could help boost the immune system in humans.

Just to be clear, an antioxidant prevents oxidative damage to tissues, like the large skeletal muscles that power cycling, which is the nasty side-effect of metabolizing carbohydrate (blood glucose) in the Krebs cycle by oxidizing it. If you're making watts, you're making free radicals, which are the product of oxidative damage to tissues. Thus, antioxidants should be used while on the bike. To this end I now add Emergen-C to my Gatorade when I ride. Berry Blast Powerbars used to include many of the same vitamins, so this just makes an "Enriched" ride fuel now that it's impoverished. If you can afford it, you can also mix Acai juice 50/50 with Gatorade. I Googled "does oxidative stress cause cancer?" and got this...

"Oxidative stress is likely to be involved in age-related development of cancer. The reactive species produced in oxidative stress can cause direct damage to the DNA and are therefore mutagenic, and it may also suppress apoptosis and promote proliferation, invasiveness and metastasis."

Anti-inflammatories prevent inflammation primarily after a ride, and also help heal joints and tendons in conjunction with calcium, magnesium and zinc, which leafy greens contain in abundance, even if they weren't readily available in supplements. It's very convenient that berries, apples, chocolate, turmeric, etc (see chart below) meet both requirements, so only the timing of consumption changes, and morphs roles seamlessly from during to after riding. It's worth noting that most of the compounds in my smoothie, have also been shown to reduce the risk of cancer.

"Indeed, cancer initiation and progression has been linked to oxidative stress by increasing DNA mutations or inducing DNA damage, genome instability, and cell proliferation [11]."

In the last 15 yrs the health benefits of berries has been studied extensively, and the compounds in their skins almost all have health benefits to humans. The USDA published the potency of these until it was abused by sellers of all kinds of supplements and they decided to stop publishing it. Fortunately, I kept a copy I can share.

Honorable mention to two other juices, Acai and tart Black Cherry. I prefer to drink Acai by itself, but the cherry juice is pretty bitter, so that goes in my smoothie from time to time.

My initial recovery food just after a ride is mashed potato, freeze-dried Idahoan brand of late, as it's quick & easy, but a large russet potato washed and microwaved is also excellent, cooking while you shower off, and until recently my preferred post-ride meal. Potato has lots of vitamin C, and is the richest natural source of potassium, but it's also near 100 on the Mendosa Glycemic Index, so it has the fast carbs needed to prevent catabolic muscle destruction by inducing an insulin spike. I use lots of Kerry Gold grass-fed butter too, which is full of Omega-3 fatty acid - also an anti-inflammatory - along with a glass of organic grass-fed milk. All animals, whether milk cows or salmon fish, get their Omega-3 fatty acids from plants - either grass or plankton.

After 30-45 minutes I've had enough time to digest the post-ride carbs, so time to drink my smoothie, usually two 20oz servings in the first few hours.

I decided to write this post after seeing a few stories about boosting your immune system to ward off the COVID19 virus. I think you're going to be hearing a LOT more about Elderberry.

PS: If you're here to bone up on managing COVID19 exposure, you should know that common anti-bacterial soap is also anti-viral. Although Benzalkonium chloride has not been tested against COVID19 specifically, most viruses are pretty fragile outside of a warm body, so a good bet it will also kill COVID19.

"Benzalkonium chlorides (BACs) are chemicals with widespread applications due to their broad-spectrum antimicrobial properties against bacteria, fungi, and viruses."

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Risk Mitigation 101 for Cyclists

At least in California, highway funds are allocated based on how heavily they're used. This means heavily traveled roads - main roads and their feeder roads - get the most money, are the most well-maintained, and typically have paint and signs "protecting" cyclists.

The record is clear though, paint and signs don't protect cyclists, only physical barriers do. Dot-Bots and rumble strips help some, but paint is pretty worthless. I've seen dozens of violations of the cyclist lane on random afternoons in less than 5 miles. It's just a matter of time before a cyclist is hit when this occurs.

The question then becomes, what happens when a cyclist is hit? That depends almost entirely on how fast the motorist is traveling. These numbers say loud and clear, stay off heavily traveled roads with fast traffic if you value your life. These numbers are for Peds, but 15 lbs of carbon, and 12oz of Spandex aren't going to make much difference.

If advocating for cycling infrastructure, please point out that where there are discretionary funds, those need to be spent contrary to state transportation funding guidelines to create "Light Wheel" infrastructure bearing 300lbs max instead of 200,000lbs max. The cost of a bike trail is roughly 1/1000th that of a freeway lane.

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Conti GP5000 TL - R&R

I ran over a cluster of goat-heads when rolling away from a pedestrian stop-light button and picked up 3 goat-heads. I coasted to a stop while leaning the bike so the side they punctured wouldn't contact the road. 2:3 came out without penetrating the tire, but the 3rd one went in oriented across the tread and made a small puncture. The tire would still hold air for 40-50 miles, but I'd lose about 5psi, and it continued to seep sealant, so I decided to try Stan's Race Sealant on the recommendation of a friend, and see if that would seal the leak.

I'm not a fan of just adding more and more sealant in the hopes it will eventually drown the leak, so I removed the tire and set about cleaning it. I discovered that public car washes that use pressure washers do a great job getting tire sealant out. You get a completely clean and toothy tire ready for more sealant. If you can't get it to seal under pristine conditions, you're never going to get it to seal in the wild, so this is the best way to seal a slow leak.

What was left in my tire was a clear, somewhat sticky, gelatinous liquid that keep leaking out of the small puncture, but it contained no sealing beads/bits, so it was incapable of sealing the leak. This creates a dilemma because the sealing bits that plug the hole are all stuck to the tire, but to add more sealant you need to release all the pressure, and when you do this with the Conti 5000 TL it lets go of the bead, so you have old sealant stuck in the bead, and all over the inside of the tire, and you have to reseat the bead. That tire is never going to seal up well. The old sealant creates all kinds of gaps along the bead. The only solution is to thoroughly clean the tire, wheel, valve and re-tape the rim. That Conti's TL always lets go of the bead is a design problem.

Unfortunately, this time the tire came out with a lot of damage to the bead, inner casing, and sidewall, in spite of not washing the sidewall per-sec, only the inner & outer bead. Last time, at a public car wash, no damage at all. Hummm.

I should have done this before, but after letting the tire dry in the sun and inspecting it, I Googled to find how much pressure public high-pressure car washes actually use. It looks like 1,200 to 1,500 except for trucks, which can get to 2,200psi. The washer I used was borrowed from a generous friend and is rated 1,800psi, which, combined with a very narrow nozzle turned out to be too much in this case. I think if I had used the 45 degree nozzle, instead of the 25 degree, I would have ended up with a very clean but undamaged tire.

RX the 40 degree, not the 25 degree nozzle

Pressure washing is BY FAR the best way to remove old sealant, but do it right away before it has a chance to dry on the tire, and maybe even soak overnight in detergent soap. At any rate, I decided to take this opportunity to revisit my RX for installing the GP5000 TL tires, as this one was a new, but an older production 25mm tire and was crazy hard to get on. It took every trick in my book to get it on, but it did go on without damage, and no bead seating or leakage problems. Either Conti has some serious QA problems, or they have changed their spec, and loosened the bead somewhat. As the last two I've put on - one a 25mm, and one a 28mm - have both gone on easily, I'm guessing they changed their spec.

The tire held 90psi from an initial 110 psi after 20 hrs. I assume that was mostly from the tape seating into the spoke holes, the tire expanding somewhat overnight, and a small amount of normal leakage through porous rubber and around the bead and stem.

If you're here burning daylight trying to get out the door for a ride, I'll cut to the chase. Here's were I ended up getting this incredibly tight & difficult tire mounted. Njoy!

Zip-ties are like another set of hands +1

KoolStop tire jack played no role in finally getting the tire on

Obviously a LOT of prying was done to get the tire bead up & over the rim's edge. PBS tire plastics are great because they have a groove that engages the tire's bead so you can push the bead up towards the rim's edge a bit before starting to pry. I tried using the KoolStop tire jack, but though it took yet another bite out of my rim's decals, I was unable to get the bead over the edge of the rim using it. The ZipTies on the other hand were priceless. They absolutely work, every time, all day long. I cut the ties loose from L2R from the valve and the tire settled into the center cavity like magic.

As per my prior post on mounting this tire, mounting the 1st bead starts at the valve, but the 2nd starts across from the valve, keeping both beads pushed down as deeply into the rim's center cavity as possible as you go, finishing up at the valve where the beads are forced outward around the valve's base. Sans the valve area, both beads were hard against the center cavity at all times. This was one tight tire! The Zip-ties keep the tire from crawling down the rim away from you all the time. A really great discovery!

Tire Cleaning Procedure:

I guess I should say right here that pressure washers and rims should never meet. You don't want to get water inside the rim, remove the LocTite on spoke heads, or get water under the airtight rim tape. You also don't want to risk damaging the bearings by blowing water and grit past the seals on the hub's bearings.

So what to use? Alcohol, a tire plastic, a stiff cloth and some elbow grease.

Valve Cleaning Procedure:

Always clean the valve thoroughly before installing it again. This includes the inside of the valve body, the rubber seal, and the tapered seal that is pressed against the rim-tape. My SO bought a set of stainless steel straws (a little hard on the teeth IMHO) at BigLots and they came with a cleaning brush, but I see Amazon sells these brushes stand-alone.
 

Used valve body. What a tiny passage!

I prefer to clean the seals with my finger tips. For the black one pictured above, use the stippled nut that holds the valve closed to turn the stalk counter-clockwise (the "Open" direction) while holding the seal between your index finger and thumb, (or whatever method you prefer) and just rub the sealant off as gently as possible. Those are some very delicate seals, so tread lightly.

New valve. White Teflon & black rubber seals showing

Given that all the air or CO2 you'll ever put in your tires has to go through this very small passage, it should be obvious how important it is to keep both this and the stem clean. It's also the reason I had to use all High-Flow connections and couplers on my 120psi air-compressor system to insure a quick bead-seat, which it does without fail.

SS drinking straw cleaning brush

White plastic bead on tip is go/no-go sizing device

 

Damaged Goods:

Though I'm pretty sure this tire could be mounted and it would hold air, it has a lot of damage, especially to the bead area. The threads showing through almost everywhere on the sidewalls are disturbing, as are the strings/chords/fibers showing through on the inside of the casing. There's also quite a bit of rubber missing from the ribbed area that runs from the center to the bead on the inside of the tire casing.

Those ribs are probably one reason this tire has such low rolling resistance, and give the tire such good sidewall strength even when going flat. By contrast, the inside of Schwalbe's tire looked like a golf ball, with thousands of tiny dimples.

I'm sure some of the damage you see here was done by the pressure washer, but given that Conti's TLs always let go of the bead, there's no option of injecting more sealant without having to re-seat the bead on top of old sealant, or remove the tire and clean everything thoroughly and then reinstall the tire - which I still think is the best option. 

Lots of bead damage

Sidewall and bead both pretty chewed up

Extensive damage to the bead area

This looks like puncture damage

Cracked rubber and loose threads

This could be damage, but the hole looks too clean

Note the casing ribs

Why are these casing threads exposed?

Not the bead surface that engages the rim, but still...

Sidewall chords showing around the entire tire

Note tread-wear dimples

I think you can see why I chose not to remount this tire. I am keeping it as a spare, but you can see, it is far from being used up based on the tread-wear dimples. My only consolation is that this tire did yeoman's work for almost a year and performed brilliantly.

I still think the Conti5kTL is the best thing going, but I would like to see some guidance from Conti about cleaning, mounting and caring for their TL tire, and hopefully, find a way to get the bead to hang on at zero pressure. To that end, I hope someone from Conti reads this report and the company responds in a helpful way. I'm a huge fan of the tire, but groping around for solutions to problems is getting tedious.

Cheers!

PS:
Thirty mile ride today and happy to report the new tires roll better, soak up bumps better, and do a better job of killing road-buzz. As much as I like the wear dimples, I'm going to set my own minimums for these tires based on visual inspection and road feel. I have no doubt a 25mm on my back wheel would wear out long before these became issues, but not on the front wheel. Very happy with my decision to replace the tire. Already ordered another 25mm as a spare. The old tire is getting tossed.

Also should report, it may be the Stan's Race Sealant, but the tire lost ZERO psi over the last 48hrs. That's a first for ANY tire for me.