The Bike Shop: Gears by KimB

The next item that pops up when you look at a bike is the number of gears it has. At this point you may very well want to run out the door screaming “I DON'T DO MATH!!!” If you hang in there just a bit longer you'll find it's really not that awful and the information can make or break the “fun” part of the cycling.

Gears

In general the more gears a bike has the better but there is a point beyond which more gears will be helpful unless you are a pro-rider. I'm not a pro and I had to learn the hard way that gears are an important part of the bike and major factor in pricing.

Bike jargon definitions:

Bike Diagram

Drive Train

The entire assembly of gears (front and back) with the chain is referred to as the “drive train”.

(I only remember this because of Lee Iacocca's Chrysler Comeback commercials about “drive train warranty”.)

Cogset/Cassette

The cogset is the stack of gears attached to the rear wheel of the bike. There are several ways of stacking and fixing the gears together; the most modern version is called a “cassette”.

Crankset

The crankset are the front gears attached to the pedal arms which are (surprise!) called “cranks”.

Layout of the gears

Bikes may have 1, 2 or 3 gears in the front and 1, 6 to 10+ gears in the back.

• 3 gears are better than 1
• 6 gears are much better than 3
• 18 gears are way better than 6
• 21 gears are slightly better than 18
• 28+ gears – well, you probably won't need this and if you do, you'll be getting a different bike.

So the question you might ask is: “Why do I need so many?”
The answer is: You do and you don't.

Usable Gears

The fun part of cycling comes from the gears. It's all in the gears. Learning how to use the gears over different types of terrain is part of the fun but if you don't have the right gears for the terrain you are riding on; fun disappears quick.

So, you need the right number of gears for the terrain you are cycling on. If you are going up and down mountains that's a different ride than riding on a flat bike path.

Most bikes will come with a fixed set of gears, selected by the manufacturer as appropriate for that level, style and price of bike. You get what you get but you don't always get what you think you are getting.

Warning: a very loose explanation about gears.

Biking on the flat uses what I call the “sweet spot” set of gears. The bike chain will be in the middle gear in front and the middle gear in the back. Moving up or down from this spot makes it harder or easier to peddle.

When you go up a hill, you shift your gear into an easier to pedal one. You may go slower but you won't spend as much effort to get to the top.

When you go down a hill, you shift your gear into a harder to pedal one. This makes you go really fast downhill. You can also just coast down a steep hill and let gravity do the work for you.

The way the gears connect between the front and the back group, causes an overlap between some of the pairings. That overlap means that the total number of effective gears is less than the total number of gear combinations on the bike. This is so you don't have to make big gear changes as the terrain changes. It actually saves on the frequency of shifting. You still bike based on how easy/hard it seems to you but you don't have to flip the front/back combos as often.

Example from Wikipedia:

• A bicycle with 3 front gears and 8 back gears: the number of possible gear ratios is 24
  (3×8 = 24, this is the number usually quoted in advertisements)
  
• the number of usable gear ratios is 22
• the number of distinct gear ratios is typically 16 to 18

This bike has 24 settings but not 24 distinct gear ratios. Instead there are some overlapping ranges. Due to the overlap, some ratios will be duplicates or near-duplicates and means only 16 or 18 settings will be truly different. So a bike with 24 gear combinations may only have 16 different ones that actually impact your riding. The others are overlaps/duplicates. You still have a lot of gears and the overlap can reduce the number of shifts you do.

When considering a bike, consider the terrain you want to ride on. Ask the bike pros about the gears and the number of usable gears you need for that type of terrain. Most specialty bike stores are familiar with the local terrain and many sponsor competitive bike teams in the various cycling sports and are familiar with all the ins and outs of gearing.

What you want is enough gears to keep it fun. Having more gears is way better than not having enough. Cycling up a hills without enough gears to select from isn't much fun. Going up hill is hard enough, going up hill without enough gears to make it to the top means you will be walking to the top of the hill.

For some odd reason, downhill isn't as much of an issue... WHEEEEEE!!!!



WHEEEEE!

Bailey by KimB

Those of you who know me, know of my great love of horses. From early childhood I adored them. I drew pictures and dreamed of them. Any folk song that had “horse” in it, I made my Mom sing to me at bedtime. We had a record of the song “Strawberry Roan” and I made the family play it over and over that until we wore it out.

My grandfather taught me to ride when I was about 3 years old. We had a great horse named Misty and she was the perfect horse for everyone that came in contact with her. She was kind, gentle, intelligent and knew how to “watch out” for her rider. Misty came into my life several times and she formed a great foundation for my life with horses.

As an adult I had to choose: work or horses. I did try horses for a while. Dealing with the horses was no problem, dealing with the people that owned them was not. I didn't have the knack for dealing with the people. So I shifted to computers and moved on to software engineering in Silicon Valley. Computers have one great advantage: they are not people. Computers don't have “issues” beyond the ones you program into them.

Silicon Valley is an odd place. It's great to work there, it's fun, it's exciting until you burn out, then it's not much fun at all. Corporations have no patience for workers that get burned out. If you burn out, you get tossed out. That's the deal. It's called “at will employment” and that means that corporations can toss you out “at will”. Workers can leave “at will” too but in practice it's rather one sided. People are like barnacles, they like to “stick” but corporations are not in the business of nurturing and keeping workers for the long haul anymore. Their paradigm is:

Use 'em up an' throw 'em away.

When you are new to Silicon Valley, you never worry about this aspect. You think you will be at the Google of the Day forever more. You won't. When the “at will” clause kicks in (and it always does), the excitement and fun disappears along with your paycheck.

When the burn out happened for me, life kicked me in the keister pretty hard. It knocked me down, a long way down. So far down I thought I would never see “happy” again. It was a devastating experience and grinding my way back to “almost happy” has been one of those life-lessons in LIFE. I didn't really want this particular lesson but sometimes you get what you need; not what you want.

As the doors in Silicon Valley slammed shut, I was left adrift in a mental vortex. It wasn't fun and it wasn't exciting. It was more terrifying than anything I'd ever experienced even on the roughest bronc in the stable. I was fortunate, I had money saved up and I had the “privilege of class”: meaning I had access to “help” and “medical care”.

As I began to make some small progress towards “less than awful”, one of the directions I took was an attempt to regain some sense of who I was by revisiting that early foundation and joy in horses. With my good friend Dar, we began a project to find a horse for me. It was the first real attempt to reforge my identity and each step along that path took great effort. Not every step was successful, sometimes the mental vortex reclaimed all my progress but the love of horses helped me regain my footing enough until I could try again.

Bailey came into my life about 10 years ago now. Dar and I looked at a lot of horses; and we settled on Bailey. Bailey is an unregistered quarter horse type mare and was about 5 years old when I bought her. She didn't have any bad habits but she didn't have a lot of training either. We thought I would be able to train her and that was “The Plan”.

You know the saying “Best laid plans of ...”?
So, it didn't quite happen how we thought.

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,

To a Mouse by Robert Burns 1785

Over the years I've worked on and off with Bailey. Sometimes when things went well, I could do more and other times not so much. Bailey is a touchstone of both hope and fear. Fear of regressing into the that black vortex of anguish and the hope that someday things would be different and that fear would be replaced with joy that only a horse can invoke.

Still thou are blest, compared wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!

To a Mouse by Robert Burns 1785

Recently, I've regained some of my former vitality. I'm never going to regain all of it, 'nor do I look for that anymore. I am diminished but I'm still here and with a lot of help and support I make an effort each day to take one more step and Bailey has come again to pull me farther along that path.

I recently moved Bailey to be closer to where I live. I am working with her again and I sense the enjoyment of being with her. Her kind eyes and whinny greet me each time I call out to her. She seems to not mind too much the “on and off and on again” of our relationship. She accepts carrots and apples with the same good will as she does working in the round pen. Munching on an apple is her way of telling me:

It's OK.
I'm here and so are you and that's all that matters.

And of course, she's right.

Bailey 2015



Bailey 2015

Television Commercial Artistry

I'm fascinated by the advertisement Viking Cruises airs on television. Ordinarily, I ignore commercials, and have several ways of being oblivious to them. I'm adept at just tuning them out until I hear voices indicating the commercial has ended. Sometimes, when the commercial is running, I surf the channels for a later hour program, or switch to the news channel to see if there is breaking news. There is usually enough time to run to the kitchen and raid the fridge for a snack, but if the voice in the commercial is grating and unpleasant to the ear, I just turn the sound down.

When the cruise commercial appears on the screen, I watch from beginning to end. I admire the composition of each camera shot. They really are works of art. The various angles from which the camera records the views, and the changing scenes holds my interest throughout the whole commercial.

The aerial views of the surrounding landmarks are stunning. As the cruise passengers sail curving water ways, winding through pastoral scenes, they are treated to interesting views of historic towns. Landscapes, ever changing, are a feast for eyes and I imagine the passengers enjoying the marvelous sights as they pass them.

Taking a cruise can be a wondrous thing, and there are many lines that offer voyages, near and far, that can be enjoyed. But when I watch the Viking commercial, I can't help thinking what a shame that the passengers will never really see the views that the camera promises. What they see when sailing the cruise line is not what I get to see in the commercial. While they are sailing on water, I am happily cruising the same voyage, but in a concise and more poetical time frame.

Viking River Cruises

The Bear Went Over the Mountain

Song: The Bear Went Over The Mountain

The bear went over the mountain
The bear went over the mountain
The bear went over the mountain
To see what he could see

The other side of the mountain
The other side of the mountain
The other side of the mountain
Was all that he could see

This song, sung to the tune of 'He's a jolly good fellow' has long been popular with children. Its a fun play song that groups of children and adults like to chant together. Years ago when my family heard the song on the radio, we all joined in singing along.

I had never associated weather with the song, but checking its origin on the internet, Wikipedia states the song may have its origin in an old Germanic tradition much like Groundhog Day. When a bear came out of his lair to see if the weather was clear, hibernation was over. If unable able to see the other side of the mountain, it returned to the lair for another six weeks.

Groundhog day is celebrated on Feb 2nd . If the groundhog emerges from its burrow on a sunny day and is frightened by its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If the day is cloudy, Spring will be early.

Wikipedia lists the names of groundhogs that various cities and states use to predict spring. One of the more famous groundhogs is Punxsutawney Phil, from Pennsylvania who is widely televised on all the news networks. Viewers assume his prediction applies to one and all, but not so. The other groundhogs have predictions pertaining to their locations.



Bear