Monthly Archives: November 2010

Our first product review- a wet-weather tire that works!

Product reviews, Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

The day started looking not-so-great; wet, cold, and there were a number of things I needed to get done before taking off for 10 days a week from now. I was even thinking that I could rationalize not riding today after having done a ride in thoroughly-drenching rain during the latter part of yesterday’s memorial ride for Lauren Ward. But duty calls. We’d recently gotten in a new and intriguing product, Bontrager Race XL “All Weather” tires. They’d first been shown at a trade show last August, and Bontrager’s tire guy, Al Clark, was telling me how this was the first bike tire scientifically designed to reduce slippage on tar stripes and road paint. I’m thinking, yeah, right, and besides, August is far enough from our rain season that wet roads are part of a different reality.

The new Bontrager RXL "All Weather" tire that really does offer enhanced traction on slippery surfaces!

Flash-forward to these past two weeks and our re-introduction to rain. I’d set up our point-of-sale system to auto-order the tires when they became available and voila, just as the rain hits, there they are! Of course, the tires are at the shop, my bike’s at home, and my bikes in general just don’t get the love (maintenance) they should. The solution was simple; ride my bike down to the shop, get the new tires on (as well as a few other long-neglected tasks, like flushing the chain with enough Rock N Roll lub to clean it), and take it for a ride.

And where do you go when you’re looking for a place to slip on tar stripes? Where does everybodyslip on tar stripes? C’mon, I’m tossing out an easy one! That last 100 yards or so of Old LaHonda! Who hasn’t slipped on that, especially when wet? And today, it would have been difficult finding a dry spot on Old LaHonda. So I switched out the tires and headed for Skyline. It wasn’t an easy ride; I just couldn’t really get into the groove for quite a while, and as the sun was now out for a bit I was all too aware of being on a bike with wider (slower) tires, fenders, carrying more water & Cytomax than I needed… let’s just say that, when it’s not actually raining, being on your rain bike just isn’t all that much fun. And it’s odd thinking about the fact that you’re climbing 1250 feet or so just so you can try out a small section of road at the very top!

Fortunately, the sun started to hide again and the whole of Old LaHonda was quite wet and full of leaves & pine needles, making me feel better about my mission as I struggled up the hill. It was an odd ride, since I was deliberating trying to seek out anything that looked like it might be slippery.

The verdict? These new tires work! The rear wheel simply did not slip. Not on the leaves, not even on that last nasty pitch where your rear wheel alwaysslips. They’re keepers. The only downside is that they don’t roll as nicely as the Conti Gatorskins or GP4 Seasons, my prior winter tires of choice, but they sure hold the road a lot better, and they also seem to ride more smoothly.

The new wet-weather tread design is offered in a variety of price ranges, and now that I’ve verified they actually work, we’ll be bringing them in. It looks like they’ve got price points of $20, $40 & $55 (the version reviewed here, the RXL, is the $55 option). The only downside I can see is a bit higher rolling resistance, but for a winter tire, that’s not so bad. So far, I’m impressed. I’ve only got a couple left right now, but will have many more by the end of the week. No risk trying them either, as Bontrager now offers a complete 30 day guarantee that you’ll like them. Such a deal. 🙂

Enough is enough. We need a 3-foot passing law.

Advocacy & Local Issues

Me riding on a Saturday is as unusual as someone getting me out of the shop for lunch. One of those things that just doesn’t happen. One of those things that, when it does happen, is an indication that the universe is a bit out of place.

Lauren Ward's memorial ride, for which the skies miraculously cleared at the start, but cold rain returned before reaching the spot where she was hit.

The universe is out of place. But by a lot more than just a bit. Today’s ride was a memorial for Lauren Ward, the cyclist who was killed 10 or so days ago at the Alpine Road/280 intersection. Mother of two high school kids, wife of Bob Ward, longtime cyclist, racer and customer of Chain Reaction. Good people. How could this have happened to them. Why them.

Why anybody? We still don’t know what happened, we still don’t know if it’s relevant that the driver of the truck had previously been involved with one other accident resulting in the death of a cyclist, we don’t know if it’s just bad luck that the truck drive had also been involved in a head-on in which a woman whose car had drifted into his path was also killed. A horrible thought that comes to mind is whether the odds favor any truck driver with enough miles under his or her belt being involved in such tragedy. I hope not.

What we do know is that there’s not much extra room in that intersection when you’ve got motorists in the right lane getting onto the freeway, a cyclist in-between and more cars to the left. Motorists are in the mode of thinking about the freeway they’re getting onto as their highest priority. That needs to stop. Motorists need to pay more attention to the cyclists they encounter, and that’s why we need a 3-foot passing law. Not just because we need more room, but because we need motorists to be seeing cyclists well ahead of them and be thinking about how they’re going to safely deal with them. Requiring 3 feet to pass a cyclist will almost always mean moving over in the lane, and while cars might not be too concerned with being injured from a collision with a bicycle, they’re certainly going to be slowing down and become more cautious when they have to deal with oncoming cars.

That’s exactly what I saw happen in France, where they have a 5 foot (1.5 meter) passing law! In fact, you could watch oncoming traffic move to their right as you approached, allowing the car passing you to have more room.

One of the biggest arguments against a 3-foot passing law comes from law enforcement and auto-associations (CSAA being one) claiming that there’s no way to measure 3 feet between moving vehicles, and thus no way to enforce it. And if law enforcement people can’t do it, how can you expect the average motorist to? Well guess what? That ambiguity is the reason a 3-foot law is going to make it safer for cyclists, because FUD (Fear, uncertainty & doubt) will likely make the motorists more aware of and cautious around cyclists that would otherwise be the case. It’s not going to be the 3 feet that matter, it’s going to be a feeling that cyclists are supposed to be traveling with an invisible protective zone around them. What’s not to like about that?

You can see more info about efforts to pass a 3-foot law in California here, and I’ve sent in the suggestion to California State Senator Joe Simitian. When you call or write your elected representatives, it does make a difference. Please consider supporting this effort and help make it safer for all of us out on the roadways.