CWC, Shoulders, and Motrorist Behaviors

While pedaling, a cyclist gets to observe a wide variety of driver behaviors.  Generally speaking, it would seem most drivers are C.W.C.  (Courteous when convenient).  If there is no oncoming traffic, or if there is more than one lane of travel in your direction, then most drivers tend to move left and give a little safety margin to the cyclist.  With the majority of drivers, this courtesy immediately goes out the window as soon as the most minor of inconveniences presents itself.  If there is oncoming traffic on a two line highway, or if a driver wants to pass a slow moving vehicle, then the cyclist becomes as relevant as a discarded shopping bag blowing along the shoulder of the road.  Watch your mirror, get as far right as the pavement allows, grip your handlebars tightly, and hold on!  They are coming through and not giving you an inch!  Some even speed up and belch exhaust on you as they pass.  If it is a larger vehicle or tractor trailer, then you are likely to experience vacuum turbulence trying to pull you into the roadway as the vehicle passes.  In heavy traffic this momentary instability causes your bicycle to waver and you may get an annoyed horn blast from the next vehicle blowing past you.  This all makes for very tense and unnerving bicycle travel.

As a cyclist you have to remain constantly vigilant and anticipate driver behavior in order not to get squished.  I find myself contemplating what is going through the minds of these drivers as they make the decision to ignore my presence on the road and endanger my life.  I look at the disfigured and rotting remains of deer and other critters on the shoulder and half expect to see a mangled bicycle and the rotting remains of a cyclist among the road kill.  If a driver hit me would they even stop?  "Oh damn!  I hit another cyclist. * Sigh... another trip to the body shop... Aaargh!!!" 

I have come to the conclusion that quantity and speed are the top priorities of the American population.  Do as much as possible as quickly as possible.  If there is a cyclist in the roadway and no oncoming traffic, then a wide berth is warranted to prevent damage to your car without sacrificing speed.  Got to get to the store and buy those cigarettes RIGHT NOW... No time to waste!  If there is oncoming traffic or a slow vehicle ahead, the only option is to hit the gas pedal and thread the needle.  "Tough luck cyclist!  Sucks to be you!"  That pedal to the left of the gas pedal (known as the brake pedal) is never an option.  That would cost you invaluable seconds! 

You often 'feel' the proximity of a passing vehicle more than see it because you are so focused on maintaining a dead straight line on the 6" of asphalt you have been afforded to the right of the fog line at the edge of the road surface.  You can feel the turbulence caused by the truck mirror zipping by your head at 70+ MPH.  You catch your breath and wonder what the hell is so damn urgent to that driver that my life becomes irrelevant?

I have seen some cyclists attach a 3' dowel rod with a red flag on the end to the back rack of their bicycle sticking out perpendicular into the lane of travel to encourage drivers to give them what is the legally required clearance in most states.  I have not done this as I believe this would anger many drivers and create an even worse animosity towards bicyclists. 

Speaking of legalities, drivers do not seem to understand that a bicycle is considered a vehicle and is allowed to occupy the lane of travel.  Some states stipulate that a bicycle should not take up more than the right third of the lane of travel.  The fact that cyclists move to the shoulder is a courtesy to the motorized traffic and not a legal requirement.  I cannot even imagine the level of hatred that would result if I were to exercise my legal right and not move to the shoulder. 

With all this in mind, the subject of road shoulders is a popular one amongst cyclists.  We become experts on shoulder widths, repairs, maintenance, and rumble strips.  A good road shoulder can mean the difference between an enjoyable and safe ride, and a white knuckled dash of terror to the next county where you hope the shoulder changes for the better.  A wide, paved shoulder is not necessarily always the best.  This accounts for some of the biggest misunderstandings of motorists.  "Look at that fool bicyclist out in the roadway!  He ought to be over there on the shoulder the idiot!" (Insert loud blaring horn as motorist passes cyclist).

There are several shoulder factors that motorists do not consider.  The shoulder is where all the road debris ends up.  We see every description of litter, debris, carcasses, and hazards you can imagine.  The shoulder debris endangers our travel and can cause flat tires and bicycle crashes.  The thin wires from steel belted tires are often the culprit when we have a flat tire.  These strands of wire are nearly invisible although the chunks of tires from which they originate are quite visible.  I have seen discarded diapers, lost spatulas, hammers, thousands of bungee cords, screw drivers, glass, fast food containers, bolts, screws, machine parts, dead cats, turtles, frogs, snakes, and a menagerie of other animals on the shoulder.  The list could go on for pages.  I could open a variety store if I collected the stuff I have seen on the roadside.  All of these things are dangers to the cyclist and have to be avoided.  To avoid them often means going out into the roadway on the left side of the fog line... enter the harried and impatient motorist... "GET OUT OF THE ROAD YOU MORON CYCLIST!!!"

One of the taboo topics between Jerry and I is the subject of flat tires.  I feel I am risking a flat just writing about it here!  The reason it is taboo is because on our trip across the country in 2014 neither one of us had a flat tire.  That is unheard of for a cross-county trip.  As we approached the half-way point in 2014, we gradually stopped talking about our uncanny luck as we heard other cyclists talk of their numerous flat tires.  Good tires and skillful avoidance of road debris are an important part of avoiding flats, but I attribute the bulk of our good fortune to not riding on the shoulder except when necessary.  While the shoulders contain debris, most roadways stay clear of hazards.  That is our strategy.  Ride in the roadway, monitor traffic closely, and dive onto the shoulder when traffic requires it.  The success of this strategy depends on a number factors.  How wide is the shoulder?  Does it have a rumble strip?  Is it a continuous or segmented rumble strip? Is the shoulder in good repair or a disintegrating mess? 

Our favorite shoulder is a wide clean shoulder with a segmented rumble strip.  The rumble strip encourages motorists to stay in their lane of travel and and the segmentation allows for the cyclist to dive off the road onto the shoulder without hitting a rumble strip and knocking a filling loose.  Our least favorite is no shoulder with a continuous rumble strip that forces the cyclist to stay in the roadway.  There are inummerable other variations and poor road or shoulder maintenance just adds to the complications.  When you see a roadway that has expansion cracks running across it with attempted repairs in black tar, take pity on the cyclist.  Every crack results in a spine-jolting 'thud-thud' bump as we cross it.  I calculated approximately 10,000 'thud-thuds' that we endured on one 20 mile stretch of road in North Dakota.  And it did not matter if we were in the roadway or on the shoulder.  Enough to drive one insane.

Okay... I have rambled on long enough.  I hope this long post did not bore you to tears and might even help to spread the word amongst motorists as to why that silly bicyclist is out there in the road and not on the shoulder where he belongs....

Here is a medley of photos that illustrate a fraction what we as tour cyclists have to work with as we travel...

A nice wide shoulder marked for cyclists.

Narrow shoulder with guardrail insuring that you are on the fog line or in the lane of travel

 

Ride the fog line and don't waver!

Another nice wide shoulder in good repair. 

Only a segmented rumble strip would make this better!

 

Yuck!  No shoulder here!  Must compete for road space with the motorists.

 

Unusable narrow shoulder due to rumble strip

Useless shoulder... motorists probably do not even see this. 

They only see that you are not on the shoulder.

Wide and clean shoulder with a continuous rumble strip - nice!

 

 

A nice wide shoulder... but with a surprise in the center every 30 feet or so. 

 

The same shoulder with yet a new surprise... a wider rumble strip! 

Had to thread the needle around these and hope for no debris.

Sometimes veering left, sometimes right... what is that crazy cyclist doing??

 

A good shoulder with a segmented rumble strip. 

See that gap in the rumble strip up ahead?  The rumble keeps motorists in the lane of travel,

the gaps allow cyclists to dart in and out of the lane as necessary.

 

An example of poorly repaired expansion cracks.  Very common.

These cracks beat you up with a spine jolting 'thud-thud' every time you cross one.

The cracks in this example ruined what could have been a relaxing bike

trail experience off the roadway in Minnesota. 

We ended-up going back out to the road as it was in better repair.

 

 

What looks like relatively minor shoulder debris is a real hazard for cyclists.

Pieces of retread strewn along the shoulder are common and the tiny strands of metal wire frequently cause flat tires.

The Deluge

My Samsung Galaxy 5 android phone was dead.  It worked yesterday after we arrived at our motel in Bloomer WI.  I could not figure out what could be wrong. It worked before going to bed.  I plugged it in overnight... I tried plugging it in to different outlets and using different chargers and cords without success.  It would act like it was beginning to charge then go black.  It felt like the last straw.

Yesterday after arriving at the motel I discovered that most everything in my panniers was soaked.  It did not matter how I had packed it.  It did not matter whether it had been in plastic or not.  The deluge of rainfall had no mercy.  Clothing, maps, tools, everything.  My cash was even soaked and my passport curled-up and deformed.  

We had arrived the day before in Stillwater, Minnesota and got a cheap room at a Super 8 motel.  We awoke a little later than usual on Wednesday 9/21 thinking that we would probably be having a rest day due to the heavy rainfall that was forecast.  As it turned out the rainfall did not come.... at least not in the morning.  The forecast had moved it out into the evening hours of Wednesday.  We discussed this new development and decided we could make it to Bloomer WI (The next logical stop some 74 miles down State Hwy 64.  There was nothing in between.  No towns after about 10 miles.  We made a reservation at the Bloomer Inn before leaving knowing it was going to be a very wet night.

The day started out fine.  We made decent time despite our late start of 9am.  We rode across the St. Croix River bridge into Wisconsin and made our way east.  We stopped at a convenience store some 12 miles or so down the road.  It would be the last open service of any kind for the rest of the day... and evening.

It was someplace about 15 miles from Bloomer that the skies turned black.  A look at the radar on my cell phone showed a box around us and an approaching storm.  It did not look good.  We were in a long flat stretch of road near a stream.  Jerry and I had separated a little while earlier and he was somewhere ahead of me.  As the sky began to turn liquid I sped up and searched frantically for Jerry and some kind of shelter.  There was nothing.  The frequent lightening and thunder was my biggest concern.  It started to hail, then pour rain.  At this point I had to look out for myself alone.  I ditched my bike in a cornfield (Did not want to be around metal in this storm)  and ducked under a small grove of trees to hopefully at least temper the downpour.  It was no good.  

I have never been caught in a storm as bad as this one before.  We later heard that 4 to 5 inches had fallen during the period we were out there. I had taken all the usual precautions against rainfall.  panniers covered, rain jacket, helmet cover, shoe covers, etc.   In the end it made no difference.  About 20 or so minutes later everything was soaked.  The rain had tapered off and I slogged back to my drenched bike and pulled it out of the cornfield.  My seat cover was a sponge so I pulled it off and stuck it under a strap on my pannier cover.  As I rode down the road I heard a shout a short time later.  It was Jerry.  He had found cover under a carport with some folks.  Lucky.  

We did not make it far before the next wave hit.  We saw a roadside picnic area.  The sign said "Closed."  No matter!  We headed in and found a tiny covered area about the size of a bus stop.  We stood there for probably 45 minutes watching the absolute deluge come down.  Looking at the radar picture we saw a possible break in the storm that might last 15 minutes and decided to see how far down the road we could get.  As we left our little shelter, we heard a siren in the distance.  It wailed non-stop for the longest time.  No doubt a warning in relation to the flash flood alert on my phone.

We made it about 3 miles before the next series of storms hit.  Fortunately we found a rural saloon with an awning and dove under it.  There was nothing else around.  The door on the saloon said, "Closed on Wednesdays."  That was the only day they were closed.  Of course...  Sigh....  The saloon awning offered good protection and we sat under it for 2.5 hours as the sky flashed with lightening and the downpour continued unabated.  We broke out my stove and made coffee.  We joked about our luck and took photos.   Then we got bored... and cold.  We put on more clothing and continued to wait.  A car or truck occasionally drove past at highway speed.  All else was darkness.  The radar picture showed a line of storm cells perfectly aligned with our position heading right towards us from west to east.  It was like an arrow that had our name on it.  North and south of us was fine.  We were at ground zero.  Our position neatly surrounded by a severe weather box on my phone's radar. 

As evening approached, then fell, we knew we had to make a decision.  Make a dash for the motel or spend the night under the awning of the saloon?  Probably not the wisest choice, but the idea of sitting under the awning all night soaking wet was not appealing and since we were soaked already, why not make a dash for it in the deluge?  The only real hazard was the lightening... and the darkness.... and the possibility of being swept away in a flash flood along some remote road that neither one of us knew anything about.  Other than that - perfectly safe!

We took our chances and rode out into the darkness with our little bike lights on and our glasses off.  Glasses were of no use.  The lenses would instantly be covered by the rain making them useless.  We rode in a headwind.  Our world was water.  Everywhere.

Half an hour or so down the road a kind Good Samaritan named Michelle stopped and offed us a ride in her SUV.  We were sorely tempted, but by that time we were only a couple of miles from our motel and figured we might as well have the "full experience."  

Minutes after she drove away leaving us in the rain and complete darkness, illuminated only by flashes of lightening and our insignificant bike lights, we came to a sign warning of high water on the roadway ahead.  We carefully rode further watching for the hazard.  Fortunately this section of road was okay and apparently the signs were put up in expectation of what was to come.

We made it to our motel around 9pm and checked in.  Somewhere along the way my cushioned seat cover fell off.  Bummer.  I began emptying everything out of my wet panniers.  Not much survived dry.  Never before in all my years of riding have I had such an experience on a bicycle.  I was soaked, distraught, tired, sad, relieved, and had a mixture of emotions hard to describe.  We showered and went to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner.  It did not help my spirits much.  There is so much work to get everything back in order.  

Today is Thursday, 9/22.  The rain predicted for the night did not come.  The weather today is partly cloudy.  We got suckered.  Today we are forced to take a rest day and dry things out.  My phone apparently quit working due to some problem with the outlet or perhaps a little residual moisture in the connector.  It is working now again thank goodness.  I am sitting at the local library in Bloomer.  Some weather forecasters are saying that it was a once-in-a-century rainfall event for the area in which we got hit.

Here's to long distance tour cycling and all the great memories.... and the PTSD that comes with it!  :-)

* On a side note, Stillwater was the halfway point of our journey.  we had 5 Century rides on the first half of our trip.  Those 5 days accounted for 27% of the 2,046 miles to Stillwater.  The other 73% took 25 days of riding.

Arriving in Wisconsin

Before the storm.  Clouds building

Under the saloon awning during the deluge

Still under the awning as nightfall approaches

We are the blue dot and the storm was moving from left to right.  

(The box is the severe weather warning area)

* Note the 'tail' of the storm aligning perfectly with our position.  Ugh!

The aftermath in the motel room

Everything had to be dried out

Pelican Rapids

After our zero in Fargo we rode to Pelican Rapids and stayed at a cool host's house right downtown overlooking the pelican.  Gretchen and Andrew Johnson are wonderful hosts!

Photo 1 - the big bird (& the little one)

Photo 2 - Gretchen & Andrew

Photo 3 - Our host's house / business

Photo 4 - The view from my room

"Rest" Day in Fargo?

We rode northeast into Fargo on September 14th with thunderstorms on our heels and 1,700 miles on our bikes.  The forecast was for showers and thunderstorms overnight and Friday.  We decided this was our cue to take our second "zero" day in 26 days on the road.  A zero day means no mileage ridden towards our destination and implies a "rest" day.  I put both these words in quotes because neither are particularly accurate....

We arrived early in Fargo as we started the day the earliest yet in order to try to avoid the afternoon storms.  We were on our bikes before 7am.  We were in Fargo by 12:30.

The first order of business was to find a cheap motel.  We had already researched options the night before and selected the Scandia hotel near old downtown.  It was inexpensive and near the Great Northern Bike Shop.  One of our planned visits. 

The rain started right after we arrived at the hotel.  Good timing!  We unpacked our bikes and then walked the 4 or so blocks to the bike shop and checked it out.  I went across the street to a barber shop and got my hair cut, then we found a place for an early dinner (The Wurst Pub) and were back to our room for the 6pm news.  We watched a bit of a movie then hit the sack for some much needed rest.

Friday morning we awoke to rain showers.  We walked .75 miles to a breakfast place (The Fryin' Pan) and then began our quest for a Minnesota and Wisconsin highway map.  We needed these to help plan our route for the coming week.  It was no easy task to find them locally!  After several inquires in person and by phone we ended-up walking several blocks to the Metro Area Transit (MAT) and took a bus for $3 round trip to the West Acres Mall some miles away.  From there we walked nearly another mile to the visitors center on I94.  There we finally found our maps.  While there we got to see the infamous woodchipper from the movie 'Fargo.'  It was signed by the directors.

We hiked back to the mall and took the bus back to the transit station, then walked several blocks back to our motel. When we arrived I found my rear tire deflated on my bike.  * Sigh.  I had patched this tube two days earlier after finding a glass shard in it.  I pumped up the tire and rode it to the bike store.  I bought two new tubes (one for a spare) and had the bike tech check my chain for wear.  It had been skipping a tiny bit over the last 300 or so miles.  He said it was showing wear and he could change it for $25.  I told him I would think about it, then rode 2 miles to the grocery for needed supplies. 

I returned to the motel and not only replaced the tube in my tire, but rotated the tires as well.  It is close enough to half way across the country and would need to be done soon anyway.  Then I rode back to the bike shop having decided to have the chain replaced as suggested. 

The tech changed the chain and as he was doing so it began to thunderstorm.  I waited briefly, then rode out in the rain back to the motel to meet Jerry for dinner.  The chain skipped severely on the way, so back to the bike shop I went. 

This time the rear casaette was replaced for an additional $35.  It had 8,000 miles or so on it anyway, so it was time.  This fixed the issue, but the cassette was a 11-30 versus the 11-34 of the original..... I lost my 'Hail Mary' gear and never even got to use it !  :-(

Back to the motel, park the bike, then walk several blocks to dinner in town with Jerry.  We finished and got back to the hotel at 8pm.  That is when I began to work on my journal and use the motel PC to do some on-line work with my blog and such.  Flopped into bed at 11pm. 

We were up at 6:30 on Saturday to resume our ride.  

That is a 'zero' day on a long distance tour... non-stop chores, probably 5 miles worth of walking and another 5 riding around town, and about 6 hours of sleep.   Now can I take a rest??

Photo 1 - Checking into the Scandia hotel
Photo 2 - The storm picture
Photo 3 - The wood chipper
Photo 4 - Bike repairs in the hotel room
Photo 5 - Bike repairs in the shop
Photo 6 - Fargo at night

Tailwinds and centuries

We avoided the snow storms going over Maria's Pass into East Glacier, but the next day as we left Brownies Hostel, our vision of sailing onto the easier, downhill, east Montana plains was dashed.  The Day we left East Glacier it was cold, raining, and a stiff head wind greeted us.  We fought our way to Browning and had lunch at a Subway there.  The rain and cold slowly subsided though the winds continued.  We stopped at a motel in Shelby after 73 miles.

The next day the rain and wind continued.  It was Labor Day.  We decided to take our first zero day in Shelby.  Nothing was open in town except a couple of restaurants.  We mostly laid around and rested, which was good.  I did a software update on my phone (which had been pending for days)  and ended-up with a corrupted micro-sd card.  Arrrgh!  I had to pull my micro sd card and replace it in the hopes I could later recover my photos, music, maps, documents, and so on.  

We got back on the road the day after Labor day with favorable winds and rode 105 miles into Havre.  Our first century!  In the following days we completed 3 more century rides and over 570 miles in 6 days... and not in the most favorable conditions.

  On one century ride day we dealt with a 20mph cross-wind, hills, 6' wide rumble strips, 75mph traffic, and darkness.  That day ranks up there with nightmares... another story for another day.

We are in Bismark North Dakota in the central time zone today. 15mph cross winds out of the north and a frost advisory.  Heres to long distance tour cycling!

Leaving East Glacier in a rainy, cold, headwind

Arriving at a motel in Shelby after 72 Grueling Miles

Arriving in Havre on Tuesday 9/6 after the winds shifted to our favor

Our host Lindsay Brown in Havre

Two weeks down - East of the Divide

My odometer says 784 miles and we are done with the big passes if the west.  The topography is changing from green forested mountains to the flatter, drier, and gradually more treeless terrain of the Great Plains.  The challenge now changes from long, high, climbs to wind and thunderstorms.

The weather forecast we saw this morning indicated a winter storm advisory for Glacier National Park.  We were staying at a private cabin near Columbia Falls arranged through a friend.  It was really nice to have a house to ourselves, dry out, and enjoy an evening and night indoors.  It was hard to get back on the bike and ride out into a day that was threatening rain, but with the weather advisory we felt it best to get over the continental divide now.

We rode through West Glacier over the Continental Divide at Maria's Pass  (5,236 feet), and on down to East Glacier.  We are staying at Brownies Bakery & hostel tonight.  A unique experience.  We are surrounded by young people from around the world.  It is a casual, college dorm like atmosphere.  Old, squeaky wooden floors and bunks.  Yet another new overnight experience.  Thank God for ear plugs!

The weather forecast over the next couple of days is for temps in the 40s, rain, and ENE wind 10 - 15mph.  Yuck!  Not at all favorable.  We will evaluate our situation again in the morning and make a decision on what to do.

* Photo 1 - My bunk at Brownies Hostel in East Glacier
* Photo 2 - Marias Pass 
* Photo 3 - Glacier Natl Park scene
* Photo 4 - Our friend's cabin near Columbia Falls
* Photo 5 - Making breakfast under the awning of the bar after a strange stay overnight next to Jerry's Saloon near Fortine, MT.  Another story for another time.
* Photo 6 - Jerry headed to the restroom accomodations at Jerry's Saloon.  A port-a-potty out on a golf green.
* Photo 7 - Our camp at the private "Hook-U-Up"  RV Park near Libby, MT
* Photo 8 - Some of the locals at Hook-U-Up RV.

* Photo 9 - Arriving in Montana (8/30)

* Photo 10 - Our last evening in Washington state.  A 60 mile day that turned into an 87 mile day when camping plans did not work out as expected. Yet another story for another time.  Photo was taken when we finally found a campground where we could stay right at dusk just 3 miles from the Idaho border.