Orny's Cycling Journal

It might violate the image I’ve cultivated, but there was a time before Ornoth was a cyclist. Let’s set the wayback machine to the previous millennium…

In the late ’90s, I had a two-mile commute across the Charles River from my home near Fenway to work in Kendall Square. Having learned that taking the train took 45 minutes and the bus took 35, I decided to try getting to work using an old Fuji road bike from college, which had somehow followed me through five moves.

During my ensuing commutes, I discovered the freedom and efficiency of navigating the city by bike. I cut my commute in half, got a free workout, and enjoyed the relaxation that comes from a morning or evening ride along the riverside. That is, until I sheared a pedal bolt in half.

By then I was riding regularly enough to realize that replacing that old Fuji would serve me better than trying to repair it. So I ordered a Mongoose hybrid from L.L. Bean, which worked well until it was stolen.

By that point I was really enjoying riding, and thinking about doing a long charity ride; I was committed. After some looking around, I picked up a new blue and white 2000 Devinci Monaco hybrid from a bike shop in Newburyport.

The next year I would put 3,400 miles on that bike and ride it through my first two-day, 192-mile Pan-Mass Challenge charity ride. In fact, it was my companion through my first five PMC rides, gifting me with 16,797 miles of joy and beauty.

On a practical level, that bike supported my transition from an occasional two-mile commuter to a committed endurance rider. It helped me become a serious cyclist, and to learn what equipment would best suit me. So five years later, with the Devinci showing some signs of wear, I did the research and graduated to my first real road bike.

The Devinci saw occasional use when my road bike was in the shop, and served as a commuter during the icy and snowy winter months. But for the most part it sat forgotten and unused in my back room for the next eight years.

For four of those years, the item “Ditch the Devinci” lingered somewhere on my to-do list. And this afternoon… its time had come.

I wiped the dust off the saddle, filled the tires with air, checked out the rusty mechanicals, and saddled up for its last ride: four miles down the Southwest Corridor bike path to the headquarters of Bikes Not Bombs, a charity that takes old bikes and does what they can to refurbish them and move them on to appreciative owners in underdeveloped nations in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Despite the Devinci’s thousands of miles and years of wear and neglect, BNB accepted it enthusiastically. I signed the paperwork and walked back to the nearest train station, leaving a huge piece of my cycling history behind.

But it would be really remarkable if—after so many years—the Devinci could serve someone who needs it far more than I do. If anything, my final ride convinced me that its steel frame could still cover plenty of miles if given a good dose of mechanical care. After all, the tires still remarkably held air, the gears shifted, and the brakes worked.

However, after coming home, my back room feels awfully empty now. Although it was mostly just taking up space and collecting dust for seven years, the Devinci was also maintaining an emotional link to my early years as a cyclist, when I was learning so much, and first captivated by the beauty, utility, camaraderie, and sheer joy of riding.

Last year’s summary concluded with the assertion that 2010 was probably my best year on the bike, and that it would be all downhill from there.

Well, so far I’ve been right. After riding 5,000 miles last year, this year I could only muster 3,000. Much of that reduction was due to my rejoining the work force.

On the other hand, 925 of this year’s miles came from 40 22-mile round trip commutes to Quincy. The unfortunate part is that I really can’t do my commute safely in the dark, so it’s only a five-month affair from April to September.

Despite doing 40 percent fewer miles, I still did seven centuries this summer (only one less than last year’s eight), and brought my total 11-year mileage up to 36,500. I especially enjoyed my second Outriders and Hub on Wheels rides, and sort of enjoyed riding Jay Peak (despite the rain), but was discouraged by both the CRW’s Climb to the Clouds and the Flattest Century.

This was the year that my road bike—the Plastic Bullet—finally passed my old hybrid in terms of mileage. That’s a nice accomplishment, but it also means the Bullet’s getting old. It has a bunch of dings from careless mechanics and car racks, and a worrisome crack we discovered near the bottom bracket. She may not have much more than a year or two left in her.

One benefit of wage slavery is that I had the disposable income to replace and upgrade a whole bunch of equipment this year, including a new helmet, new SPD cycling sandals, a body composition bathroom scale, and a major overhaul of the entire bike. I replaced my rear wheel (again) after discovering large cracks in the rim. But most noteworthy was my purchase of a Garmin Edge 800 GPS/cyclocomputer, which I’ve enjoyed immensely (when it works properly).

This was a year of superlative highs and lows for my Pan-Mass Challenge charity ride. The Dana-Farber’s new Yawkey Center for Cancer Care opened, and I attended the dedication of the PMC Plaza that comprises the building’s main entrance, and also went to the Heavy Hitter banquet for the first time. But several of my riding buddies—Paul and Lynda and Noah—didn’t ride this year. My buddy Jay rode for the first time, but I only got to ride with him for 6 out of 192 miles. One first-time rider thought enough of my web posts to express his thanks while we rode through the hills of Truro; but when I got to Provincetown, I discovered that a spiteful volunteer had stripped ten years of souvenir PMC luggage tags from my bag. I rode in record form, but had to dodge sprinkles most of the weekend. I came close to raising $10,000 this year, but was unable to convince people to pony up the last $295 I needed. As I said, highs and lows.

It’s also worth noting a few things that happened online in 2011. I had a health and fitness question answered in RoadBikeRider magazine; I completely revised my cycling charts and statistics page; and I published a 10-part series of hints and tips for PMC riders.

But most noteworthy was that a photo of me leading a paceline was the largest picture on the PMC’s home page for months after the ride. It was an excellent shot, and I was deeply honored and delighted to be featured on the same page as Lance Armstrong, Senator John Kerry, and PMC founder Billy Starr. Truly something I’ll remember for the rest of my life, and a good way to cap a mixed year.

Now, at the end of the 2011 season, I find myself tired and frustrated. My performance has declined a lot this year, and some of my favorite rides were difficult slogs. I tried to keep up with my younger riding buddies, but pretty much rode all alone through every organized ride this year. Maybe my frustration will go away over the off-season, and I’ll wake up next spring with renewed desire, but right now it feels like I just need some time off the bike. I can’t say yet whether that’s four months off the bike or fourteen; we’ll just have to see when we get there.

I do know that I’m not likely to do Climb to the Clouds or Flattest Century next year. I’m more interested in riding for fun again. Perhaps doing some different events will renew my interest, although that means selling my buddies on the idea or somehow finding my own transportation to those events.

If I do ride, I’ve got three significant milestones coming up. Assuming it holds together, I should pass 20,000 miles on the Plastic Bullet, which is quite a nice accomplishment. And if I somehow put 3,500 miles down next year, I will break 40,000 miles since I took cycling up again back in 2000. That would be nice, but right now hitting stretch mileage goals is at the absolute bottom of my priority list. And of course there’s my 12th Pan-Mass Challenge, where I’ll surpass $75,000 in lifetime fundraising for cancer research.

But now that the season’s over, I’m done pushing myself. I’ll ride a few miles if and when I feel like it, and spend the next four months thinking about next spring, coming up with new rides and new ways to enjoy time in the saddle.

Never let it be said that my friends aren’t ambitious.

Back on April 15th, my friend mybikeandi decided she was going to do her own personal Tour de France. As she indicated in her post on the topic here, her goal was to bike an equal distance—2,261 miles—between then and the time the real tour ended in late July, or at least by the end of August.

Unfortunately, that dream didn’t last very long. But then, how many women actually ride the Tour de France, anyways? While working? And pregnant? Bit of a flier, that.

Well, I decided back then that I’d see how long it would take me to do the same feat, so I’ve quietly tracked how many miles I’ve done since mid-April.

Now, you know that I ride quite a lot. Over the past four months I’ve spent about seven and a half hours a week on the bike, and despite that, it still took me 19 weeks to do what the pros do over a mere three weeks. Oh, and they go over the Pyrenees and the Alps, just to make it a bit more scenic. After all, the McGrath-Monsignor O’Brien Highway (where I passed my 2,261th mile) isn’t exactly the Champs Elysées…

Looking back at previous years, if I’d started on April 15th, here’s when I would have finished Le Tour during each year:

This year, I’m on pace to break 4,000 miles per year for the first time in my life. I’m commuting anywhere from 85-150 miles every week. I’ve done as much as 275 miles in one week, and over 150 miles in a single day.

So, next year am I going to set a goal to finish my personal Tour earlier? Heck, no! At this point, I don’t feel like I need to set any more ambitious mileage goals, because honestly I’m already at the point of diminishing enjoyment.

Of course, that might also be end-of-season fatigue talking. But there’s really no need to spend more time on the bike, particularly if it’s starting to become a chore rather than a pleasure. The only unrealized goals I have are to do a bit of cyclo-touring, and maybe do a 300k brevet. I used to dream about doing the annual Mt. Washington Hill Climb, but that will probably never happen.

But for now, I’ll just enjoy my victorious commute down the Champs Elysées, as it were…

Lots to report.

I started commuting again. However, because I’m at a client site (located halfway between the two Sapient offices I used to work at), it’s only two miles. When I worked at SAPE, I would bike down to the Arboretum and back each way, just to get about 15 miles in each way, but I haven’t had time to do that yet because of all the other stuff going on in my life.

But I have been riding down to the Arboretum almost daily to visit Inna in the hospital, although that’s about to end when she is discharged next week.

In fact, the only other riding I’ve been able to do for the past month has been weekend Quad Cycles rides. My mileage for those four weeks has come almost exclusively from weekend rides, but it's added up to 160, 195, 82 (we’ll revisit this in the next paragraph), and 176 so far this week. So I’m getting back-to-back 75-mile rides in on the weekends, which makes me feel better about my readiness for the upcoming PMC.

Except today I was riding through Belmont and *wham* I had all kinds of shooting pains in my chest. Like sharp, severe pains. Turns out that I was stung four times by something: wasp, hornet, who knows? First time I’ve been stung since I was about eight years old. Fortunately, I don’t seem to be allergic.

Now, back to that 82-mile week, which was because I only rode one of the three days over Fourth of July weekend. Why, you ask? It’s a long story…

Five weeks earlier I had my bike tuned up and the headset replaced at Back Bay Bikes. When I got it back, the headset was loose, the brakes weren’t properly adjusted, nor were they the brand of brakes I’d requested. But none of that really was worth the hassle of going back to the shop.

Until I broke a spoke on Saturday July 2nd. Great. So I skipped Sunday July 3rd’s QC ride in order to bring the bike into the shop at noon, and while they were at it I asked them to check out the headset.

Later that day I received a call that went something like this:

• Bike shop: The bearings fell out. You need a new headset.
• Orny: Uh, that’s bullshit. You replaced the headset four weeks ago. I have no intention of paying parts or labor on this job.
• Bike shop: You’ll have to talk to the service manager. He won’t be in for the next two days. But you’ve got time. It’s going to take ten days for us to order a new headset.
• Orny: Ten days? Can’t you at least put my bike back together so that I’m not out a bike for a week and a half?
• Bike shop: Nope. The bearings fell on the floor and I can’t be arsed to find them.
• Orny: Okay. Are you going to give me a loaner?
• Bike shop: Well, we could probably cut you a deal on a rental…
• Orny: There’s no fucking way I’m paying you baboons more money because you destroyed my bike. Fuck you very much.

Tuesday I was too busy to call the shop, but on Wednesday I called and gave the briefest of explanations to the “service manager”, who said, “Hold on. I want to look at the bike. Lemme call you back in ten minutes.”

Twenty minutes later, he called to say, “Okay, your bike’s ready to pick up, no charge.” Excuse me??? So I was without any form of transportation for four days, missing two days of QC training rides, and having to find my way down to the hospital to visit Inna via MBTA and walking, all for no reason at all!

So needless to say, I am more than disenchanted with their service department. It’s doubly sad because I had an even more horrific experience at International Bike. Now come on: the *only* way a bike shop can differentiate itself from its competitors is their service department, and I’m really amazed at the pathetic service I’ve gotten from Back Bay and International. WTF?

Finally, PMC fundraising seems to be moving. I can’t say I’m knocking the ball out of the park, but good progress is being made. I need to continue to push, but I’m pleased to have made a good start on it.

Please help me out if you can: donate here.

Ran over a pigeon on my commute to work this morning. Ba-dub-a-da! And finished my last heavy training week at 115 miles. The next week will be just a few easy spins and carbo-loading 'cos the ride is less than a week away!

I've logged 110 miles per week in the two weeks of my commute to Waltham. I've also seen two cardinals, and this morning I raced a rabbit. I also learned that my knees are the first things to complain about overtraining; but at least my hip is finally better!

Despite snow and a lot of ice, managed another 50-mile week of commuting. However, I had my first mechanical failure. While unwinding my cable lock, I bumped my taillight, whose plastic clamp attaching it to the seatpost snapped like a twig in the 20-degree weather. I made use of an old clamp I still had at home to affect repairs that night.