Another Cycle Around the Sun: 2018 Edition

2018 is nearing its end, and like many of you, I've been thinking back on the year that's been and beginning to look forward to next year. I generally don't put much stock into the flip of a calendar being responsible for any dramatic changes, but nonetheless it seems an appropriate time to check in with oneself, right?

As much as I try to keep my eyes forward, I do enjoy compiling my year (of cycling) on this blog. That's one thing that's never going to change, but 2018 was full of change, to say the least. In June, I moved out of the city I love to be with the woman I love, while attempting to continue to do all of the things I love to do. To say this was a game-changer would be an understatement.

I no longer need a bike to make my commute more efficient. I no longer ride a bike at work. In many ways, my life has seemingly been flipped upside-down. So obviously, I have experienced some growing pains this year, but what I realized more than anything while putting together this compilation was that there were still many great moments throughout the whole year, and that's what's most important.

Of course, moments don't mean nearly as much if they're not shared with friends and family. Many of you joined in my adventures, and many more have followed along here. I don't place much value on statistics (I think you know by now that I don't write here for the sake of gaining readers), but as I keep doing this, I do find it interesting to see what piques others' interests. Without further ado, here are my top 5 blog posts in 2018 by readership:

1. For the Love of Wash Cycling - My emotional farewell to the job (and city) that helped define my life.
2. Bike to School - Not only did we welcome our third and youngest member to our cycling tribe this year, but our child did something we've never done: she rode her bike to school!
3. Zippity Doo Dah - A 22 mile family adventure braving the heat on the 4th of July.
4. Triggered - A short blurb on some new (to me) cycling infrastructure.
5. Today Didn't Suck - Powering through 11 arduous miles on the Wash Cycle while facing some severe winds.

Surprisingly, for the first time since I started this blog, the Philly Naked Bike Ride didn't make the top 5! But you know it had to make the list, so here are my top 5 blog posts outside the top 5 (with the caveat that some of the above were some of my favourite moments from this year):

1. Dare to Bare - The Philly Naked Bike Ride will always be one of my favourite moments of the year. This time was extra special, as I returned to the City of Brotherly Love for the first time after moving to Columbus.
2. 6 Seems to be a Theme... - My third year celebrating a friend's birthday with a bunch of friends biking his age in miles.
3. Bikin' on the Bayou - Among all of the amazing times I experienced in my weekend in NOLA, carving out some time to ride their bike share system was one of the best.
4. Pedaling for Pints - A beautiful evening exploring some of Columbus' oldest areas, while also enjoying some excellent beer and meeting some equally excellent new faces. My first real "aha" moment out here.
5. The 700 Club - Crossing over 700 miles for the month of April during 30 Days of Biking, a favourite if only because I'm not sure I'll ever reach that total again.

Honourable mentions:

1. Citi Cycling - Sneaking in a ride in NYC before my girlfriend and daughter arrived. I believe this is the 6th different bike share system I've used.
2. I Already Live With too Many Ghosts - My first Ride of Silence, just days after Philadelphia lost another cyclist due to traffic violence. This was quite memorable, but for very melancholy reasons.

Sometimes pictures are worth more than words, and what's a good blog without pictures? I took hundreds of them this year, most of which will never see the light of day. Here are some of my favourites from 2018 that did make the cut:

Being touristy in NYC

Brisk Winter mornings in Philly

High above Carbon County early in 30 Days of Biking

A throwback special to my early days as a Wash Cyclist

Midway thru my friend Todd's 59th birthday ride in April

The Wash Cycle trike looked a little out of place on the trail...

My last ride on the SRT before moving out of Philly gave me this bittersweet view

My former bosses and me on my second last day as a Wash Cyclist

And of course, my final day as a Wash Cyclist

My first commute in Columbus

One of my first rides on the Scioto Mile

22 miles on the 4th of July!

PNBR end of ride - I don't know the lady who took the picture (in the foreground)

A triumphant first ride to school!

Beautiful Autumness

Starting the month of December in NOLA, in the best way possible.

The best bike lane market ever

Errands led me to Ireland! OK, not really, but...

I did bike on Christmas Day, in my third different state this month

And of course, this year still isn't over. I don't usually have set goals for mileage, but with 4 days remaining in the year, I find myself sitting 26 miles short of 3,000 for the year. It goes without saying that I'm going to do my best to squeeze one more moment in to 2018.

As always, thank you so much for riding along, and cheers to another year of cycling and adventuring in 2019!

Shortest Day, Longest Ride

Today is misleadingly referred to by some as the "shortest" day of the year, also known as the Winter solstice. Of course, the day is not actually shorter in time, but daylight is (was) at a premium. I kinda like it. It means the days can only get "longer" from here.

Today also happened to be my last working day of 2018, and possibly my last chance to take a decently distanced ride until next year. My choice of blog post title is also somewhat misleading, because I didn't take my longest ride ever (or even of this year) today, even though it may have felt like it. For starters, if you take a look at this Jolly Roger flag I spotted on my ride home, you can see it was pretty windy today:

My commutes to and from work added up to about 24 miles, but the wind always makes any ride feel much, much longer. Some estimates today had gusts up to 20MPH coming out of the northwest, which just so happens to be the direction I need to take to get home.

Today's ride seemed even longer because I was also powering through a toe injury I sustained the other day while my girlfriend and I were out for a routine errand:

This was caused by some miscommunication on my part, which led to me colliding with her and wedging my foot between her front wheel and fork. Sounds gruesome, I know. It looks bad and it's definitely sore (and probably fractured), but I've honestly had worse:

You're probably asking, "Why the hell did you decide to continue riding when you should be resting your foot?" Well, I'm crazy, you see. Also, it only hurts when I apply pressure to it. I changed my pedal stance just a bit and I made it through all those miles mostly fine other than some minor discomfort while dismounting. These are certainly not reason enough for me not to ride.

I'm also constantly in competition with myself, and my reward today was going over 100 miles for the week and 200 for the month (in December, mind you), both of which are firsts since I've moved to Ohio, believe it or not:

There's also the inherent good feeling from just riding a bike, of course. I'm also very close to reaching 3,000 miles for the year, provided I can take the family on some rides during our busy holiday stretch over the next 10 days. It shouldn't be a problem because we'll have more daylight to do it, right? :P

Anyway, happy solstice, happy weekend, and happy holidays to all of you! Ya know, just in case I don't post again until next year.

Bikin' on the Bayou

My girlfriend and I were fortunate enough to celebrate a co-bachelor & bachelorette party this past weekend in New Orleans. I use no hyperbole when I write that the Crescent City is something that truly can't be described. It has to be experienced. Everything was amazing: food, music, art, history, architecture, I could go on. Add amazing friends to all of that and I can't think of a better way to celebrate the beginning of their new life, and we did all of this in one small area of the city.

In addition to experiencing so much of the eclectic culture that's so plentiful throughout the French Quarter, I also seized the opportunity to take a small amount of "me" time to explore more of the city via bike share:

The NOLA incarnation is called Blue Bikes. Most bike sharing systems in the US are very similar, but they all have their own little quirks. This particular variety is produced by Social Bicycles and is semi-dockless. You register on SoBi website or app (including payment info), where you're given a unique account number and select a pin. You input both of these on the back of the bike you want to rent:

If you're successful, you are allowed to remove the u-lock that can be attached to either side of the bike (most appear on the right side):

What I really like about the semi-dockless system is that you can deactivate/end your ride simply by re-attaching the u-lock in its designated lock points, and you don't need to re-attach it to a dock, meaning you can lock up anywhere:

This helps alleviate two major issues I've had with bike sharing. True dockless systems (like Lime) allow you to leave the bike or scooter anywhere, including locations that are inconvenient or dangerous, like the middle of a trail for example. Docking systems eliminate this issue, but if there's no dock present, you can't end your ride. With this system, you can technically "lock" the bike anywhere, but psychologically you're more inclined to lock to something when a lock is included. I saw no instances of bikes left in precarious locations (at least none that I can remember).

A brief aside, I also really enjoy that bike rack. They're scattered throughout the city and are sponsored by local businesses:

Anyway, my first trip using the system was on Friday afternoon, when I ventured west to find some lunch for my girlfriend and I at seed Cafe:

Another thing I really like about these bikes is that they're much lighter than some other shared bikes I've used, with only a basket on the front to store cargo. As you can see, that was more than enough space for my purposes:

I'll go as far as to say that this has been my favorite bike share program that I've used in any city (so far - there's a lot more research to be done).

That short 2 mile ride was all I had time for on Friday. I ventured back out on Saturday to do some exploring and to burn off some of the beer from the night before:

It doesn't matter what city you're in. Cars are going to park in the bike lanes. Blah. Anyway, I had a loose goal in mind of finding as much of the city's bike infrastructure as possible. I saw a couple places that looked promising according to GoogleMaps, so I headed in that general direction. I first stopped by the Superdome about a mile north of our hotel just because it looks so damn cool:

I continued north and east, not quite knowing where I was, but knowing that somewhere there was a bikeway up that direction. Thankfully, most of the bike-friendly roads are well-marked. New Orleans is known for many things including its distinctive street signs, and bike infrastructure is no exception:

I continued on my way towards the Lafitte Greenway (I bet you never would have guessed that's where I was going based on that pic up there):

It's very similar to most greenways or trails you've probably seen in your area, including the Olentangy Trail near me. I found it to be a pleasant ride, even though a local remarked as he rode past, "Be careful man, they don't care about bikes around here." I had no issues.

At any rate, the Lafitte leads to a two-way protected bike lane at its south end, which I took to head west toward the heart of downtown:

There are plenty more bikeways in the center of the city, including some that are parking protected:

I also happened upon perhaps the best bike lane marker I've ever seen, which can really only "fit in" in New Orleans:

It's so unique, a friend suggested it should be on a t-shirt. I tend to agree.

I didn't fly solo the whole weekend, as my girlfriend joined me for a short 1-mile ride on Sunday morning before we headed back northward. In a weekend where we did basically everything we possibly could cram into a true New Orleans experience, being able to sneak in 10 total miles of riding was the icing on the cake, and made me love this magical slice of America even more. I can't wait to go back.

Start Making Excuses

It's the season of giving thanks, which is always a good time to appreciate what you have and make improvements where you may be lacking. I've got a lot to be thankful for, but recently, I've been thankful for my ability to make excuses...

...to ride a bike. My grandfather lived to be 93 and rode a bike to get his mail every day until about 6 months before his death. He didn't have to, but he made a point to do it. I think making his daily routine active contributed to his longevity.

Since I've moved, things in my out-of-work routine have become a little less active, and I don't ride nearly as much as I used to. Living in a semi-suburban environment, it's easy sometimes to be lazy and decide to jump in the car for everyday errands. I've been better about this recently, but I still need to continue to "make excuses" to ride regularly. 

In the spirit of the season and not being much of a Black Friday shopper, I decided to create one of these excuses on Friday by biking four large bags of our daughter's lightly used clothes to a couple donation bins located less than a mile from our house. It took multiple trips, but it was worth it (of course), if for no other reason than to burn off all the extra calories I'd packed on the day before:

Perhaps I should also mention that I'm thankful for the boss giving us the day off on Friday. This whole thing took about 1.5 hours, and I'm really glad I had the time to do some good and enjoy some unseasonably warm weather in the process. Anyway...there are bins located on either end of our nearest Kroger parking lot, each supporting different organizations, so I split the donations just about evenly:

All told, she probably gave me 100 pounds of clothes to donate. Cleaning out a closet never felt so good. Mine is next up on the list, which will surely lead to several more excuse rides. For now, one of my ongoing favorite excuses to ride has become recycling drop-off, which I've lost count of how many times I've done in the last month or so. I made another trip on Saturday:

We always like to tell our children not to make excuses, but I found myself using our daughter for yet another excuse to ride on Sunday morning, as we all took the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful Autumn day to return her library books just down the road:

You may have seen that bike rack on this blog before. It's still one of my favorites around this area.

Not wanting to waste a beautiful day (they've been few and far between), we went further into the park connected to the library and sneaked in some extra family riding time:

Additionally, the girlfriend and I cleaned out a bunch of things while decorating the house for Christmas. I took them to our nearest thrift store on the back of my bike. No picture, but we have some more cleaning to do, so I'm sure I'll be back over there soon.

And finally, sometime yesterday evening, I rounded up some more recycling and hit up the grocery store on the way back:

Here's hoping someone comes to empty those recycling bins some time soon. As you can see, the weather was not as nice yesterday as it was over the weekend, and today is actually considerably colder and a tad snowier. Still, I plan to head out briefly for a bit later this evening. A light dusting of snow is no excuse not to ride. See what I did there?

Basically, sometimes making an excuse is a good thing. Do what makes you feel good, be thankful for it, and most importantly, keep riding!