Effin' Sweet...Share the Road Bike Jersey is finally in!

The Jersey's came in today. They look flippin' sweet. I don't think I could be any happier right now. Actually I could. If I wasn't still at work, didn't have a ton of errands to run and had a Cape Cod in my hand I'd be a little happier, but not much. Here are the pictures of the jersey, front and back. They send a pretty clear message to drivers. I think everyone should be able to understand. You can't see it too well in this picture, but the left sleeve has a black arm band printed on it. Black for those who have died, on the left arm so drivers can see it really, really easily... except in England...














I have one Men's large left over. If you want it you should Email me. If you're interested in getting one that isn't a large I'm planning on placing another order sometime in January, which will get them here first thing in the spring. If you want to order one, you should Email me, as well. My E-mail is coreykeizer@yahoo.com Cheers! Read more!

A Step in the Right Direction

While the rest of the Country's towns and cities sits by doing the minimum to be considered "bicycle friendly", Portland Oregon has begun to take an aggressive stance to force cooperation on the road between bicycles and cars. After much attention was given to two cycling accidents that took place at the same intersection the city of Portland has begun to create "Bike Boxes" at intersections to prevent what they call the "right hook"... I found it humorous that they used this fairly innocuous term for a driving technique that has lead to multiple deaths in Portland. If I had coined a term I would have called it something more dramatic like "Death on the Right" or "Right turn to Deadly st." or something like that. Although I've read reports that Portland's Police chief was less then sympathetic to the family of the cyclists who were killed during a rally for cyclists rights, I still applaud the city for it's commitment to bicycle awareness and cyclists rights. Jonathan Maus, whose bikeportland.org has been a focal point for Oregon cyclists commented that "It’s something the city has been talking about for a long time, but these two deaths have certainly given an added sense of urgency. The community has just made it so clear that this is very important, that they’re very concerned following these fatal crashes that things need to change." (nytimes.com)

Why can't more large cities follow Portland's lead? I know the cycling culture in this town is much more mainstream than in other major cities like Los Angeles but with the tide slowly turning away from motorized transportation, and a very obvious need to decrease traffic, carbon emissions and increase the health of it's population you would think, logically, that cities would be jumping on board with efforts like this in an attempt to change the transportation culture and make cycling, or walking for that matter, more desirable.

Well, I'm sure we'll catch on somewhere between now and never; just look at all the stuff Pasadena was doing to make itself more bicycle friendly (for those of you who don't know, Pasadena tried to ban the Tuesday/Thursday ride, known as the "Pack" but continued to court the Tour of California in an attempt to bring the finish to the rosebowl, extremely ironic). I'll keep riding my bike regardless, taking a full lane like I'm allowed when there is no bike lane, and rolling off the line at a green light as whatever pace I feel like.

See the full N.Y. Times article on the Portland issue by Clicking here, riiiiight here.

Here is a Diagram of the Portland "Bike Box" The greatest traffic thing so far.

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The Week in Review

The first week of 2008 has come and gone and I'm none the wiser for it. I might be a little fatter for it, since this weekend was nothing but rain and rain, and I just couldn't will myself away from the XBox 360. Here are a few things that happened last week that merit some coverage...

Crazy guy sabotages bike trails to gain sick revenge on cyclists he's never met:

To give further credence to my belief that everyone located south of the 10 freeway is completely insane is this story reported on KNBC News. Apparently this 50 year old was walking his dog on a MTB trail and was passed a bit to close by a Mountain biker. In retaliation for the poor judgment by that one Mountain Biker the guy decides to sabotage the trail for ALL mountain bikers, since you know, we're like the Borg in the fact that we all share one brain.

Click here for Crazy guy story

Another Dead Cyclist, Another Motorist who will talk about how painful the situation is for him

in the continuing saga of Motorists vs. Cyclists, a Fed Ex Driver ran down a kid on a bike in Santa Cruz where, according to local comments on the Sentinel website, there was clear markings on street signs giving cyclists the right of way. This apparently wasn't enough, as the Fed Ex truck turned right and plowed the cyclist down, killing him to the point of being pretty much dead. Like all motorists who hit and/or kill cyclists, I'm sure he'll do everything he can to avoid responsibility, not say sorry to the poor family of the deceased, and go on and on about how difficult his life has been since the accident. Poor Mr. Fed Ex driver, I'm sure this event will leave an unimaginable scar on your existence that is totally comparable to the pain and suffering the family and friends of the cyclist you killed are feeling.

Click here for big time Sadness

Elected officials continue to not care

In typical, completely pre-packaged fashion I received this response from Barbara Boxer to my letter writing campaign regarding the bicycle commuter tax break issue being left out of the energy bill.

Thanks Babs. Thanks for reminding me that civic action is completely useless unless you have millions of dollars or lots of guns and explosives.(read below to see what I mean)

Dear Mr. Keizer:
Thank you for taking the time to write and share your views with me. Your comments will help me continue to represent you and other Californians to the best of my ability. Should the Senate consider legislation on this or similar issues, I will keep your views in mind.

If you would like additional information about my work in the U.S. Senate, you might wish to visit my website, http://boxer.senate.gov. From this site, you can access my statements and press releases about current events and pending legislation, request copies of legislation and government reports, and receive detailed information about the many services that I am privileged to provide for my constituents. You may also wish to visit http://thomas.loc.gov to track current and past federal legislation.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. I appreciate hearing from you.

I'm so glad my letters are being read by people who care.

Stuff About Me and Share The Road/15 Rides

I spoke with my Rep at Champion Systems today and the Jersey's should be here by Thursday. This is very exciting to me since I wasn't expecting them to show up in time for my first century which is this weekend. The Stage Coach Century is the first of my 15 centuries and happens this weekend in Ocotillo. For those of you who aren't familiar with were Ocotillo is, its about halfway between the boonies and bumble fuck. Read more!

New Years Resolution

In the past I've always thought new years resolutions were stupid. I'd make them, then forget about them after February. The only one I've kept relatively well was to stop drinking soda, and that is iffy. However on the Highway 39 ride Joseph and I got to talking about New Years resolutions and he had a really good one. He resolved to put more miles on his bike than on his car. This would include mileage that he would accrue going to races, some of which can be hundreds of miles away. I thought this was a great resolution, so great in fact that I decided to copy it. Sorry Joseph, I'm taking your idea.

So for 2008 I resolve to put more miles on my bike than on my car. I'm even going to put a little window on the right to log the total number of miles that I've ridden vs. the miles I've driven. this is going to include all miles, even miles that I'm driving to get to events (including the Death Ride which is over 400 miles away).

I actually think this resolution will be easy for me to do. I found out today that my company is moving it's office to a location that is literally 3/4 of a mile from Griffith Park. This means I'll have a 4-5 mile commute to work, and I'll have ample time to do quick hill repeat rides in the park. I used to do lunch time rides in Azusa when I worked for that printing company, and that was great for my over all fitness. Even if I count my daily commute at 9 miles a day, and multiply that by the number of days worked in a year it's about 2,400 miles.

In fact, I'm actually ahead of the curve already. I did about 27.5 miles on Tuesday, and I rode to work from Corina's house today. So my totals look like this so far.

Bike mileage = 31.65
Car mileage = 0

Awesome. Read more!

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years everyone! There are a lot of different things going on right now, and for cyclists, there were a few different new years rides such as the PCH ride or the Mt. Wilson ride. True to form I did neither, as both would have been two difficult for me. Not difficult because they're hard, but seeing how my New Years eve diet typically consists of Doritos, "Pig in a Blankets" and Vodka, I just didn't feel like getting up at 6:00 a.m. to do a ride at 7:30.

Instead I opted to sleep in till 11:00, mosey around until my friend Corina made breakfast, play some video games, eat, and then go for a ride. Corina makes some great pancakes, and I was starving so they hit the spot. I kicked it around the house for another hour after we ate and played some Tony Hawk, then hit the road around 1:30 p.m. I just did a quick 30 miles around the park.

I took some pictures as usual, but nothing of real note to talk about on this ride. It was pretty standard Griffith Park fare today. One awesome thing of note: It was so clear, that you could see all the way to Long Beach. LONG BEACH!!!

I wish I could sleep in like that

The best pancakes ever.

This spot is pretty sweet. In Los Angeles, none the less.

No New Years day ride would be complete without a view like this.

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Highway 39, Attempt #2

Saturday was my second attempt at highway 39, and although we didn't make it all the way to Angeles Crest like we had intended I feel the ride was an overall success as we reached 6000 ft of climbing in 86 miles.

I met Joseph from Bicycle Johns at the Rose Bowl and we rolled out around 8:15. We got caught in with the slow Montrose ride as they were leaving the Trader Joe's in South Pasadena. We hung in with that group until we got to Duarte road in Arcadia, from there we rolled out on our own. we made it to Encanto park in about an hour, took a short break then rolled out to head up the canyon.

Highway 39 is a special route for me. Beautiful rolling roads for the first 12 miles and then up up up. It's the kind of ride that just keeps going up for what seems like forever. But the scenery is beautiful, the views are incredible and it's very lightly traveled. Actually, the last 15 to 20 miles were blocked to traffic. We hopped the gate, ignoring the obvious Road Closed sign. We ran into a Ranger and a Sheriff, but neither seemed to pay us any mind so we kept trudging upwards.
One of the really really cool geographic areas on highway 39 is a high altitude field. After you've climbed up and up, you come upon this open area, where there had been a fire a few years back. Now it's an open field of green grass, with charred trees sticking out like old worn fence posts.

Joseph spent most of the climb way out in front of me as I was stopping to take pictures and am slower than he is. The climb burned my legs, and I could feel the affect of the thin air as I got close to 5000 ft. We stopped at a vista point that was about 5500 ft up and about 43 miles into the ride. The view was incredible, through the clouds you could see the backside of Mt. Wilson from where we were standing. We, rather I, decided this was the turn around point. It wasn't too much farther to Angeles Crest, but I'd had enough climbing and I needed to get home at a reasonable time. Needless to say, the ride was pretty incredible. You can see pictures of the ride on the Gallery.

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I've never liked Judge Judy, But...

This video was on Bicycling Magazine's website. I then found it on Youtube and posted it here for your enjoyment! I've never been a fan of Judge Judy, or any of these court drama shows as I've always felt they make a mockery of the judicial system. Now that the judicial system makes a mockery of the judicial system they don't seem all that bad. But this video made me like Judge Judy a little more.

What was disturbing about this video was the defendants attitude towards the cyclist, and cycling in general. First, the husband makes the comment "well, he created the situation by riding his bike in the first place". Obviously ridiculous right? But a lot of people have the attitude that cyclists put themselves in harms way knowingly and therefore don't have the same rights as pedestrians or other vehicles. They look at bicycling as a frivolous past time that when practiced excludes the practitioner from their legal rights. What also bugged me was when the female defendant said "here he was riding his bike 40 miles away from his house, going 30-40 miles an hour" like bikes need to be kept in the driveway and should only go up to 10 mph.

Then the defendants tried to cop to only paying 500 for all the medical and damages because the plaintiffs wife has jumped the gun and said over the phone "yea, 500 should cover everything" which is just completely stupid.

Thankfully, Judge Judy saw through the crap and legal bias towards cyclists and awarded the guy $3,000. What is important to take away from this though is the attitudes of the defendants towards the cyclist, and cycling in general. This attitude isn't confined to these two morons, it's shared among millions of morons world wide.

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Stupid Government

Merry Chrismahaunakwanzaa everyone! I hope this post holiday dispatch finds you comfortably situated after your respective holiday celebrations. Remember, the new year is fast approaching which means a whole new year for our awesome government to say lots of things and do very little.

Those of you who know me best know that I can be a bit opinionated when it comes to my feelings on various American issues; and that I often feel a bit, how should we say... dissatisfied(?) with the performance of our elected leaders. A recent "adjustment" in the nations Energy bill shows just how committed our politicians are to the environment, energy independence and of course the paramount issue of this blog, cyclists rights.

--The Senate recently stripped the bicycle commuter tax benefit from the Energy bill, while reinstating the Hummer tax benefit, which the House had removed from the energy bill.-- Click here for details

I don't know about you, but giving a 100% tax break to Ad men, "consultants", lawyers and doctors for "work vehicles over 6,000 lbs" doesn't scream "We need to break our dependence on oil". One would think that if our elected officials were truly committed to the environment, sustainable technology and energy independence they would all be jumping to vote for ANYTHING that would get our lazy asses out of our cars and onto something that has zero carbon emissions and other beneficial side effects such as, I don't know, good health? Not so much it seems, I guess big oil does still make the world (or at least America) turn.

Quite frankly I'm disgusted. I would hope that anyone who is able to read at a 5th grade level would be disgusted too. If you're as disgusted as me, and you have a little time between games of free-cell then write your senator. Don't know who your senator is? That's ok, I've included a link that lists the Senators by State in Alphabetical order (starting with Arkansas). Click here to find Senators by State

I think what our senators are really trying to say here is "We don't really care about energy independence and the environment since we can afford gas, heat and AC in our own homes thanks the the billions in handouts we get from Exxon and Halliburton, but we'll continue to give it plenty of lip service until Hollywood and the media determine that it's not a hot issue any more". I don't even want to surmise what their feelings are about cyclists rights, although I'll hazard a guess that it's probably on the bottom rung of things to discuss, if its even made it onto the ladder. Read more!

12-22-2007 Secret Slopes Ride

The first rule of the SSR is you don't talk about the SSR. The second rule of the SSR is you don't talk about the SSR. The third rule of the SSR is if it's your first time at the SSR, you have to ride it. I've begun to take a very "Locals only" attitude towards some of the routes I know as I don't want these already rough roads being heavily treaded on by people who don't appreciate such natural beauty. One of those rides I'm very protective of is what I call the Secret Slopes ride. It's a ride that is easily accessible, yet very lightly traveled. I think that many people know it's there, but few ascend it's rocky, unmaintained roads. This is fine with me. The fewer people on my routes the better. I won't provide route maps of this route, as my attitude is now "I'll tell you about it if you already know about it". However, here are some pictures from Saturdays Secret Slopes Ride.

One of the many winding ascents... they become descents later!

The Bend of Destiny

Through the hills

It's a magical place, populated by many giant Bonzai Trees.

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Wow.

I moved away from Lawrence Ks when I was 21 years of age. A lot of my friends are still there. A lot of them are in this video, which is funny.

Now I remember why I left Lawrence.

Enjoy

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One Down 15 To Go

And boy was it a tough one. Not because 100 miles is something that's hard, or that 6,000 feet of climbing is hard either, but the two put together at an average speed of 18 miles an hour is. Add in not eating right the night before, or the morning of and you have a bonkalicious recipe for leg burnin' disaster. Yes, I was poorly prepared. But I finished in under 6hrs and 30 minutes total time on the road so I'm happy. Total ride time was 5hrs. 45 mins. as I took some pretty subtantial breaks here and there. If you had seen me going up Encinal you wouldn't have known me. I was like a ghost, a sissy ghost, a wiped out loser sissy ghost who was crying for his mama. It was pathetic. Here are some lessons I learned on Friday, some I already knew but ignored... A mistake I won't make again.

1) Don't spend the first 20 miles off the front pulling at 23-25 miles an hour through Agoura hills

2) After spending the first 20 miles off the front, don't continue to take 3-5 minute Pulls on the pace line through Camarillo.

3) Don't "Pick up the Slack" for the Jack holes taking 30 second pulls, saving themselves for the climb, because you feel obligated to since the guy who did RAAM is doing it.

4) Don't eat only Clif blocks and Rice Krispy treats.

5) Don't have 4 vodka cranberries the night before a ride.

6) Don't feel like you have to be in the lead group.

7) The noodle content in a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup is not enough to constitute "Carbing up"

8) 7-11 muffin's are not a substantial breakfast

9) Do not drink a Monster energy drink 5 minutes before you roll out.

I will say this, John and Kevin were awesome. Kevin was on a 4 man RAAM team and is a freakin' monster. John stayed back and rode with me as I dragged my pathetic ass up and over Encinal and Mulholland. There were times on Encinal where I wanted to throw in the towel, thanks to John I didn't.

All in all it was an awesome ride! Thanks Planet Ultra.

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2008 + Route Profiles = Awesomeness!

Now that I've figured out how to add pictures the way I want (yea, I'm an idiot, I've been on blogger for how long now?) Here is a sampling of the routes for next year. This isn't all the rides, just some. The Planet Ultra Rides aren't up yet, I'll add those soon. And to start the season, I'll be getting ahead in 2007.

Planet Ultra Christmas Century, Dec. 15th 2007

Stage Coach Century, January 12th

Solvang, March 8th Breathless Agony, May 3rd 2008 Ojai Valley Century, May 31stThe Death Ride, July 12thLighthouse Century, August or September... Spooktacular Century, October something

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Pictures!

I've been wanting to put pictures on this thing for I don't know how long. So here are a couple. This is Griffith park, one is of the view, the other is of the fire damage from May.



These are from a ride I did on December first. They were taken by David Root, a Cat 1/2 racer from Portland who was in town visiting his sister. Thanks David!

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End of the Year is Drawing Near

2007 is drawing to a close. 2008 is rapidly approaching and things have begun to line out pretty nicely. Depsite not being anywhere near the fitness level I had planned to be I still feel pretty good about my plans for 08. I don't think the major events are out of reach as I still have 4-5 months worth of solid training time to prepare for the big climb rides. Now what I really need to do is focus through the holidays and make sure my peak fitness hits at the end of April/beginning of May. I'm feeling pretty good about how things have progressed in general, and despite there being a number of distractions over the past month (work is busy, trying to move the office, new technology...) I still am feeling extremely focused on my goals. I can't wait for the 12th. Despite the Stagecoach century being one of my easier centuries it really represents the starting line. All of 2008 feels like a race to me, with Stagecoach being the first stage. I'm trying to decide what I'm going to do to represent all of the events together. I thought about writing the name of all 15 events on each race bib, and then crossing them out as I go. I also thought about putting little "100" stickers on my bike. I don't know. I can't decide. All I know is I'm ready, and not ready. I'm ready to get this shit started. Lets go!

A couple of side notes:

I finally bought a Garmin, it's awesome. greatest thing ever. I've been logging miles in it, however I forgot to turn it on the last ride I did, and then the next day's ride was a bomb with 3 flats in 30 minutes. I threw in the towel.

The Jersey's have been ordered and the proof has been approved. The proof for the bib shorts was wrong but since I'm the only one ordering the bib shorts no one else should care.

Do not offer me a beer if you see me out. I'm trying to limit my consumption of alcohol to cut body fat in preparation for this effort, and being a good Buddhist I cannot say no to hospitality... so please, do not offer me beer. (you can however offer me Mexican food or Sushi).

Some of you have ordered Jerseys sight unseen. I cannot thank you enough.

so Thank you thank you lots.

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Purpose, Framework, Whatever You Want to Call It.

There is a lot going on right now. Things are really shaping up for next year quite nicely. I've registered for my first 3 rides (the only 3 with registration that's open at this point). I'm beginning to get really excited. After the rides with Jerry and during the week of the fire I decided to give myself a little couch time. It was great. I needed a little rest. I let my mind spread out a bit and let my legs soften up some. I made some decisions about my training and figured some new strategies out that I think will make a difference for the really tough rides. The biggest adjustment though is the framework for this grand effort next year. I made a decision to do this thing over the next year as proof to myself that I could. That was it. However after reading all the e-mails that have been going back and forth at PAA, and the articles in VeloNews about bike/car incidents I decided I needed to give this effort a greater direction. I decided that all of this, these 15 rides, would be a memorial to those who can't ride. This would be a dedication to those who are no longer with us, not because of disease but because of the carelessness of others on the road. When I was 18 I was hit by a car, hard. I was lucky. I lived. Not 2 years later a guy was riding down the street a couple blocks from my house when he was run down by a cement truck. He died. People are killed on their bikes all too often. It's time that we as riders come together as a community and stand up and say "Hey, we're here too. See us, respect us, give us the space we deserve." On each of these rides I'll be wearing the same jersey, I've included a picture of it below. If you see me, say hi. The jersey is my dedication to those who aren't with us anymore. And it's a reminder to all the drivers on the road, Please, share Read more!