So you read our post on bike commuting and have decided that you’re digging it–but your route takes you down busy streets or downright clogged inner-city arteries. Here are a few tips on how to survive.

Photo by Flickr user Global Jet.

1. Wear a helmet and gloves

It would seem like this goes without saying, but in biking around town apparently it does not.  WEAR A HELMET AND GLOVES!. There was a bike shop I used to frequent in Minneapolis that kept a collection of broken helmets from customers. While it may have had the affect of scaring some away from the sport, it was very effective in selling safety. Every one of the helmets on the wall represented a crash that the cyclist was able to walk away from.

The gloves note is just a gift from me to you. You don’t have to wear them but you’ll thank me when you save yourself the weeks of annoyance when you scrape up your palms on a pavement landing and have to deal with the itching at work.

2. It’s ok to stop for traffic signals

Did we forget where we’re going? We’re going to work. What’s the big rush??? Stopping for red lights (and even staying put for a few minutes) will allow you to keep your stress level down (calculating how to dart out in front of cars and busses takes a lot of mental energy) and allow to arrive relaxed and invigorated. You might even show up for work at the same time due to the timing of lights further down the street. 

3. It’s ok to go a little out of your way for safety

When winter hits and the sun starts to go down early I find myself riding home in the dark. My particular route would take me straight through the heart of midtown which is a snarled tangle of cars, busses, pedicabs, pedestrians, vending carts, horses, and more. The speed is stop-and-go at best, and in the darkness it is sometimes tough to judge movement and distances, even if you are an xmas tree of lights. After putting by brake lever through a guy’s taillight I decided to find an alternative route for the dark months.

I decided to head 6 long crosstown blocks out of my way to the west side highway which is a bike trail that goes up the side of Manhattan. Though it added two miles to my route home, there were no stoplights and no traffic. It was well worth the detour.

Elsewhere in the city, where the bike lanes were apparently not as well planned, there is a stretch in Brooklyn where a west facing bike path stops a block shy of a connection to an northbound path. You have two choices: bolt straight ahead the wrong way down a one-way street to make the connection or go a block to the left, then down the correctly-facing one way street, then back up the connecting road.

I tried both on different days. Guess what the time differential was. 15 seconds. You read that right: 15 seconds. That is the power of “going with the flow” (of traffic).

4. Both bikes AND traffic in general don’t like right angles

If you find yourself coming up on a double-parked car the wrong thing to do is to is stop and try to make a 90 degree turn into traffic.

Even though it is scary at first you’ll want to merge out at least onto the painted lane marker or, if traffic allows, into the next lane of traffic to pass the parked car. This will vary depending on the drivers of your city. Make sure to maintain your speed and merge gradually so drivers can slow down or change lanes themselves.

As you become more comfortable moving away from the curb of safety you will also become better at predicting what cars will do. You don’t have to wait for a car to stop to prepare to go around it in a graceful lane-changing arc. If you see a cab pulling over and slowing down begin your merge! The smoother you can move in and out of traffic while maintaining your speed the better everyone moves.

5. Use Hand Signals

Even though most drivers are not cyclists, many hand signals are universal. The two you’ll use most while commuting are:

• pointing at the lane you are about to merge into (especially if it’s occupied with cars)
• the bird

Now that you’ve tweaked your route and have gotten yourself into the mix, be careful not to let that power go to your head! Stay heads-up and alert and enjoy being “plugged in” to your city. I will leave you with a video example of how NOT to ride with these newfound skills:

Here are a few random things I learned from spending time on the road.

1. Cleated shoes have holes in the bottom of them!

It’s 36 degrees in February and it has been raining and snowing all day. Unlike most in the office who are dreading the toasty warm bus/subway/car ride home I am actually looking forward to biking through the mess. After all, I have my fenders, my full gore-tex outfit and fleece shoe covers. The first 10 blocks of riding bring me back to my childhood; I’m charging through puddles and laughing maniacally at the world … until my feet are starting to feel cold… really cold….

Cold rain froze over the rear cassette, preventing shifting and making my bike a single speed for most of the ride

It was at that moment that I was reminded of something painfully (literally) obvious that I have known all along: cycling shoes have holes in the bottom of them to bolt your cleats onto! Next winter I’ll be filling those cracks in with wax.

2. Going out of the way can be worth it

I will admit: You have to be a little mad to even consider having midtown be included as part of your commuting route, but it was the most direct line home so it was part of my routine for some time.

While the snow and cold are late to arrive in the city, you can count on the early sunset which complicates riding, especially in midtown which takes on the appearance of a carnival as early as 4pm.

I’m approaching an intersection after dark where a guy is walking a halal cart in the left lane while three lanes of traffic are trying to barge left onto a one way street while a pedicab and two cyclists (including me) are trying to go straight. I see what should be an adequate opening in front of the pedicab and behind a car… except that the car slammed it’s brakes on at the last second.

*pop*. My brake lever punctures the tail light making a perfect bullet-hole shape.

After giving the guy $100 to have it fixed I decided it was probably cheaper to ride the west side highway bike trail home during the dark months.

3. Don’t chase cabs!

After a great training ride with the ‘Arches in Brooklyn I’ve thrown caution to the wind. Not only am I riding Flatbush Avenue home (read up on the “dollar vans” some time), but I’m drafting off of a cab at 30 miles per hour. We are flying over the crest of a hill when I see a giant pothole materialize from under the cab! I manage to pull my front wheel up but don’t quite have the twitch to get the back one up high enough.

My wheel hits the far edge of the pothole, cracking the rim at two spoke eyelets. Miraculously my tire doesn’t go flat for another 10 miles, but the damage is done and I have to buy another wheel. Luckily these aren’t my racing wheels!

4. Rain is to tires what soap is to hands

So you know how soap reduces the surface tension of water making it more “slippery” to aid in washing your hands? Well water does the same thing to broken glass, of which there is a LOT in the city. How many flat tires in the rain did it take for me to finally plunk down and get some proper puncture resistant Armadillos? Don’t ask.

5. There are places to speed, and there are places not to speed

In my early twenties I lived in Minneapolis, which is a pretty bike-friendly city in it’s own right. I’m barreling down my scenic route to work and am entering the convention center area which houses a number of hotels. About a half of a block from an intersection I see a woman with two suitcases begin to wander into the road against a red light. I start to ring my bell, but she is in another world, looking in the other direction, away from incoming traffic. I spot check the traffic and there is a car in the next lane over on my wheel — no escape route there. I give a couple of quick yells. Still nothing as she is now a few more steps into the road. I check my speed and there is no way I’m going to be able to stop this thin tired bike from 28mph in this distance so I do what any sensible mountain biker would do: I lean my right shoulder out and brace for impact.

What happens next surprises me to this day. I feel nothing more than a soft brush on my shoulder but when I look back it is if she and her affects were pins and I was a bowling ball. She was on the ground and her two suitcases were half way across the crosswalk. I circled back around and make sure she and her suitcases were ok and was on my way. In replaying the scene in my mind I still can’t decide if I was the wreckless kid or if I saved her life (it’s much easier taking an impact from another person than from a car). Either way, I certainly toned things down from that point on and have kept the racing to the race course and the open road.

After making the mistake of paying way too much for a pair of Speedplay carbon water bottle cages (and having them promptly toss my water out into the road and subsequently break) I started looking around for other options.

A few months of casual surveying revealed that many (if not most) who owned a carbon cage of some sort had a problem hanging onto water bottles on rough roads. It was uncertain whether or not it was the common c-clamp style or if, in an effort to be as light as possible, the manufacturers weren’t endowing their arms with enough grip.

Whatever the case, I decided that I would ignore the siren call of carbon and set my sights on metal; as a rider who burns through water I would not lose another bottle to a road anomaly anomaly-at least not without a fight.

I’m not sure how I came to find King Cage, but once I did I was immediately intrigued by his “Iris” model. It used the same “inverted” bottle cage design found in carbon cages which gives you a little wider angle at the top to get your bottle in and out of. It is also hand-made in the USA from US-sourced (often scrap) materials. It is also surprisingly inexpensive for something made locally.

While King Cage does make incredibly light titanium cages, this material is not yet available for the Iris. The Iris is Stainless Steel which is twice as heavy. Of course all that extra weight (20grams) adds up to a whopping 0.04 lbs so it’s a non-issue.

One thing that is nice about Stainless’ is that unlike alloys, which are soft and literally rub off onto bottles when they get wet and sandy (you’ll recognize this by the black color that you get on your bottles that you can’t scrub off in the sink), these do not shed. Your bottles may have their decals rub off from sand and dirt but they will not blacken. Nice.

After surviving the rough roads of spring and still going strong without a single lost bottle I’m sold. Those with titanium (or silver colored) bikes will also appreciate how well these fit with their overall aesthetic.

Bottom Line: 4.5 Stars

Despite the open-top design these things hang onto a filled-to-the-brim full sized bottle at speed and in the rough. They are well constructed and look great. If a little more time were taken to make the welds a little more artistic, or if these were offered in titanium that would be icing on the cake, but then we’d also probably have to pay more. King Cage

King Cage "Iris" on a titanium downtube. The inverted design gives you a wider angle from which to get and put your bottle.

Single weld point in stainless steel tube

While one would expect a little more "artistic" welding from an American-made product, it is thorough and secure, and the price is great

Some guys get really into their rig for mountain climb races. Since I have no delusions of winning Mt. Washington this year it didn’t make sense for me to spend a day moving my entire Shimano XP mountain bike drivetrain over to my road bike, nor to spend a boatload of money buying a new crankset/cogset/etc.

Much like a skydiver doesn’t go jumping without his parachute, I could not send myself off to attack the mountain with a 53-39 crankset.

So I started hunting for the cheapest way to add some low hill-climbing gearing to my bike, and to my surprise, found everything I needed in our apartment.

My wife has a bike with a similar (and perfectly maintained, of course) drivetrain: 10 speed Shimano 105 (vs my 10 speed Shimano Dura Ace). The key difference being hers has an FSA triple crankset which I discovered is compatible with my Chris King Bottom Bracket. Done deal.

Next challenge was to work out a cadence sensor. While I *could* port the one over from my crankset, it would be a pain to move due to the double-sided tape and zip-tie mess. Additionally, the gossamer cranks sit a little further away from my frame so I’d have to find something else.

After experimenting with three different magnets I settled on a stack of three plain refrigerator magnets, affixed using a roll of gaffer tape. Gaffer tape, by the way, is one of the greatest things ever. Technically designed for movie sets and the like to temporarily hold cables to the floor/walls/whatever, it’s good for so much more. It’s a cloth based tape that has some stretch so that it can bend around objects that are not perfectly flat. It has a fairly strong stick like a duct tape, and is torn along the x or y axis with just a pinch and pull. You should get a roll for yourself. Now.

So with all of the parts in place all I had to do was make a few turns to the front derailleur to adjust it to the new bailout gear and we’re set to go.

Problem: 53-39 crankset way too big to push up Mt. Washington. Cheap solution: FSA Gossamer triple crankset, refrigerator magnets and gaffer tape

A stack of 3 refrigerator magnets were taped to the left crank arm for use with the existing cadence sensor. Tape is ok as this only needs to stay on for one ride.

With the chain in the smallest front chainring the short-throw derailleur in the rear barely has enough clearance to let the chain by. As a matter of fact, ONLY the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sprocket can be used in this small gear. If setting up your bike in a similar way make a mental note that the granny gear is ONLY to be used in emergencies!

Will post an update some time after the race to put the stamp of “worked” on this method in the case that you find yourself in a similar situation where you need to climb one of the tallest mountains in your region and don’t have the budget or time to switch drivetrains.

As is advised by Glen when embarking on his tours: ”bring two water bottles or you will dehydrate and die”. This goes double if you’re riding longer distances with less stops than an organized tour. After nearly experiencing this fate on a recent century ride I decided to give the 72oz Camelback Raceback a try as a means to carry (and drink) more water.

The test ride was 1.5 hours worth of laps around Central Park at a brisk pace.

I’ll begin by saying that having a straw dangling next to your face makes it really easy to drink more water than you’re used to. Even though it was a cool 74 degrees I drank through all but 6oz of my water during my ride. So while the carrying capacity equals three large water bottles, the ease of drinking may cause you to go through water at nearly double your usual rate.

I’ve known some who became afflicted with “camelback attacks” where more “natural breaks” are required all along their riding route. I think if you’re riding hard enough you will likely sweat the large % of the extra water right back out as I did. I did rather like “feeling” more hydrated by taking more frequent sips and keeping my mouth feeling wet. This offered both a psychological as well as slight physical boost.

The overall experience on it’s maiden voyage was mixed, but leaned towards the positive, both in number of plus points as well as the importance of them.

good:

• easy to remember to drink, easier to get at the water
• drinking small amounts often allowed me to ride harder without muscle cramps
• no worries of throwing bottles over bumps
• water was kept tight against back, didn’t throw itself around too much while standing
• I noticed after finishing the ride that my heart rate felt much lower than normal after a ride

not as good:

• need to be a yogi master to get in and out of the vest
• no way to refill quickly without outside help
• lower back was a little sore at the end — probably just part of a natural adjustment period

untested:

• could be brilliant if filled with ice water on a hot day (until you melt it down at which point I fear it will feel like a sweater)
• I’m guessing the straw may make it difficult to dump water on your head on hot days
• cleaning (even with proper tools) would be a pain if used with sports drinks

non-issues:

• you look a little like a hunchback but it doesn’t seem too unnatural

Bottom Line: 3.5 stars

Definitely looks like a strong choice for fast rides up to 40 or 50 miles. Will have to report back when we’re out there long enough to require (multiple) refills on the road.

Camelback Raceback doesn't make you too much of a hunchback

While I’m not the kind of guy to sweat buckets at the slightest signs of effort, I definitely run hot. Hot to the point where I’ll get heat rashes on the palms of my hands using traditional leather or synthetic cycling gloves come mid summer.

Enter the Adidas Adistar glove: it’s almost 100% mesh with a few strips of padding where it’s needed and terry where it’s useful.

After getting burned by the discontinuation of Bianchi’s 3-D mesh-palmed gloves in the 1990’s I made  sure to stock up on these when I found them. Good thing, too, as these seem to have also been discontinued within the last year.

They offer a nice, snug fit despite not having a strap. If you’re used to a glove that cinches these will feel light as air at first, after which point you’ll never be able to turn back.

Pros:

• highly breathable!
• feels light as air
• handles washing better thanks to synthetic materials

Cons:

• not as “stable” feeling as a glove with a cinching strap
• no longer made

Bottom Line: 4 stars

At the time of writing these are the only gloves I know of that bring the light weight and breathability of elastic mesh to the bottom side of your hands which makes for a huge increase in comfort in the late summer months.

Breathable palms are a Godsend when you run hot

All whites eventually soil; 3 Years of Adistar Gloves: new on top, last year lower left, year prior on lower right