Russ Nelson

Ride starting Mon Jun 22 16:05:17 2009

25.29 km 82971.58 feet 15.71 mi 4698.00 seconds 78.30 minutes 1.30 hours 12.04 mi/hr

Dropped off a couple of bluetooth keyboard modules at the Stockholm Post Office. Continued on to see if I could locate a road which is in the OSM TIGER data but which I don't remember seeing. Conclusion: nope. Figment of somebody's imagination.

[Tags bicycling ]

You want a monopoly!

You want to buy from a monopoly! Trust me on this one, and read on.

In the marketplace as everyone knows it today, monopolies are almost always bad. That's because they have a government-granted franchise which permits them to charge monopoly prices. When a monopoly has a franchise like that, they can restrict output, charge a higher price, and make more money. In a free market, without a franchise, anybody charging monopoly prices will soon have a competitor.

Okay, can you see it coming? A free-market monopoly, without a government franchise (like a license, or a copyright, or a patent), can only keep its monopoly by charging prices low enough to keep out competitors. Another way to say that is: a monopoly seller in a free market will always give you a better price than anybody else who might enter the market, otherwise ... they would.

Thus, you want to buy from a monopoly, but only if it's a free-market monopoly. And unfortunately, we've regulated them out of business. The only monopolies you'll see are charging monopoly prices, which they get away with because the government has given the monopoly in the first place.

A monopoly is a good thing, but only under conditions outside of our experience.

[Tags economics ]

Ride starting Fri Jun 19 11:50:53 2009

53.97 km 177070.10 feet 33.54 mi 9850.00 seconds 164.17 minutes 2.74 hours 12.26 mi/hr

Flew down to DC Friday to run an OpenStreetMap mapping party in DC Saturday. I scheduled my flights so I'd get here very early. Early enough, in fact, to go for a nice 34 mile ride on the Washington & Old Dominion trail. It's quite nice. The paving is in good condition, it's well signed, the road intersections are mostly protected, and it's long, long, long! A real treat.

But, I didn't bring my own bike. I rented from Bikes @ Vienna. They specialize in non-standard bicycles. They have recumbents (long and short wheelbase), tricycle recuments (tadpole and whatever it is you call the other design that has a long wheelbase, two wheels in the back, and one in front. They have tandems. AND they have crank-forward bicycles. The only thing they don't have are Rail-Riders

If you've never tried a crank-forward, you owe it to yourself to rent one from them. It's a more-or-less standard bicycle, except that the seat tube is quite slanted, and the cranks are about 18" forward of the usual location. Yes, it's a longer bike, thus a heavier bike. BUT with the flat seat, and the seat being much lower (because the seat tube is slanted, you can get the right distance to the pedals AND still be able to put your feet down with your butt in the seat), and the upright position, it's quite a comfortable ride.

If you have friends who don't like standard bicycles ("I can't put my feet down"; "I don't know how to ride a bicycle"; "I don't like that hard horn between my legs"), you should recommend a crank-forward bicycle to them.

They're not wimpy bicycles. I averaged 13.4MPH (moving average) on a foreign (not my own, not cleated) bicycle, and at one point was successfully drafting a pair of people on your standard road racing bicycle wearing your standard bicycle clothing, and riding, oh, probably 18-20MPH. Remember, I'm sitting upright!

[Tags bicycling ]

xkcd and Rule Making

Haha! xkcd notes that some problems are simply hard to solve. That attempting to impose a solution is necessarily an improvement. That sometimes it makes the situation much, much worse."

[Tags xkcd, economics, legislation ]

Ride starting Wed Jun 17 18:06:00 2009

36.72 km 120457.38 feet 22.81 mi 7358.00 seconds 122.63 minutes 2.04 hours 11.16 mi/hr

Went for a tour of abandoned and/or disused roads in the Town of Stockholm. First I went up Cook Road, then down Blind Crossing Road, (which are just dirt roads), then down Munson Road (which is decidedly abandoned, used only by ATVs), then over to Green Meadows Rd. The north end of it is essentially Joe Vitaly's driveway since he's the only person who lives on that road. His house is a little three-story hippy cabin, with solar panels and a windmill. Looks like a very comfortable place, although it might be hard to get to his house in the winter. He's got a field, woods, and river frontage, so it's quite a cozy setup. There's a few more abandoned roads I could have ridden on; more if I don't mind getting my feet wet.

Found two interesting markers. One looked like the corners of a checkerboard, and the other like the head of an arrow less the shaft. Both of these are obviously pointing at survey markers; the first an iron rod and the second a nail in the pavement. I speculate that they're ground markers for a set of aerial photos.

[Tags bicycling ]

Ride starting Tue Jun 16 19:48:38 2009

22.04 km 72294.80 feet 13.69 mi 3791.00 seconds 63.18 minutes 1.05 hours 13.00 mi/hr

Moving average speed was 13.4 MPH according to MyTracks. Not a bad speed for a mountain bike. Had the whole drivetrain replaced today. Or, at least, everything which touched the chain. It was all horrifically worn and stretched out. But now, mmmmmm, smooth and quiet.

[Tags bicycling ]

Ride starting Sun Jun 14 09:58:33 2009

19.32 km 63395.19 feet 12.01 mi 5050.00 seconds 84.17 minutes 1.40 hours 8.56 mi/hr

Awwwwws! Saw a tiny tiny baby fawn with its mommy. Heather laughed at how cute it was and that scared it into running away.

[Tags bicycling ]

Ride starting Fri Jun 12 18:04:53 2009

28.07 km 92086.89 feet 17.44 mi 5931.00 seconds 98.85 minutes 1.65 hours 10.59 mi/hr

Grrrr, had some mechanical trouble. Chain is jumping teeth. Seems to be a bit better after cleaning the chain. Will wash and lube it Saturday to see if that helps.

I'm feeling like 20 miles is a minimum ride these days. Anything less and it's not hardly a ride.

[Tags bicycling ]

Ride starting Wed Jun 10 17:39:05 2009

51.41 km 168680.73 feet 31.95 mi 9468.00 seconds 157.80 minutes 2.63 hours 12.15 mi/hr

Had to go into town to Lance's to send a fax. Headed out to Parishville, and beyond.

[Tags bicycling ]

Ride starting Wed Jun 3 16:57:54 2009

13.10 km 42971.28 feet 8.14 mi 2294.00 seconds 38.23 minutes 0.64 hours 12.77 mi/hr

The perfect day for a ride; not too cool, not too hot. Too bad I didn't have time for a longer ride.

[Tags bicycling ]