On-Street Parking in the winter

On street parking in the winter is not nice. It's not nice for the poor Mr. SnowPlowMan who has to clear the treet but the snow pile zone is full of parked cars. Nor it is fun for the drivers who get their cars blocked by the snowpiles, and have to scrape the windows clean and shovel the snow off the roof. And then they have to try starting the car without the benefit of electric heating, causing extra wear and tear in the engines if it's cold. And create clouds of pollution from the cold-start.

Meanwhile, bike parking on the bikeway is not really a thing. First, one can usually park the bike easily in the racks near just a few meters from the front door (if indoor parking is not available/rider too lazy) so why would anyone leave their bike on a bikeway? That'd also mean they walked away, and that's not something we like to discuss here in Very Northern Cycling Blog. Bikes were invented to stop people from walking, you know!

And there's the danger of snow camouflage. What happens is the bike fell over and then it snowed a lot and Mr SnowPlowMan does not notice there's a bike? Well, he plows it away!  I think most of the worst ones will get sent straight to the recycling, but many mangled ruins of a bicycle gets sold every time there's a "Lost&Found" sale.

Still, short term parking does happen. Met a friend on a walk, flat tires, the chain came off, it was colder/more slippery than you thought so one has to walk instead, or too much alcohol. In the autumn picking berries and mushrooms are good reasons to stop, but usually one should carry the bike 100 meters into the bushes to leave no clue for others to find your good berry bushes. Maybe the dog got an interesting scent and dragged the rider off to the woods?

An unusual sight; on-bikeway parking! Of a bicycle, that is.

New Tracks

First!

Today I saw the "First Snow" of the winter. The meteorological office rules say a minimum of 1 cm of snow to qualify as "official" first snow and we had that. On centimeter is not a lot, but enough for the kids to get out the sleds! Although they noticed they didn't slide very well, the gravel beneath was not slippery. :-)

And it's enough for bikes to leave tracks. I was the first here!

How is the summer going?

One thing is for certain: years are not alike. Last year we had a cold early summer (it even snowed) and then later about a month of hot days (above +25C is considered hot here). This summer were still hoping we might break the +25C limit, though we've had some days above +20C! On the other hand, the winter is coming :-) and the weather starts cooling soon. Jaakko throws the Cold Stone into the lake in a few days and the swimming will be over for the summer soon!

 And it seems it rains every other day at least. In June it rained double the monthly average (the monthly average is something like 50mm) and so far July has been the same. I wonder what happens in the Autumn when it is supposed to be rainy?

Cycling related: I've transported my lumber jacking tools on my bike to/from the woods. So if you've seen someone riding with a helmet, take note: it is probably the only time you'll see me riding with one this year. Lumberjacking helmet is imho great for cycling: the visor protects the face from flying insects, it's well ventilated, the earmuffs protect my hearing from honking cars, and best of all it is bright orange!

Growing grass

1st of May: no green.

5th of May: some green on sunny spots

And a bunch of pictures May 18th to June 8th.

May 25th: not a lot of leaves on trees

June 8th: green!

Question: what is this?

What is this and why is it here? Was I testing out a new camera?  Someone shot at me? Bike ads on the newspaper?

Why is this here?

Any guesses? :-D

A clue:

Artsy photo!

Had to dig out my sunglasses

A few days ago there was some snow coming down in the morning. Once the clouds cleared the sun was shining with full blast:

I had to dig out my sunglasses! :D That snow didn't stay long, it was half gone on my ride back and all gone the next day. Today, though was another day and I didn't need protection against the sun. There are a few low pressure systems circling us so it'll most likely be varying weather for the next few days.

Now, if only i could figure out how to get rid of those specs on the pics.

Beach Barbecue

It was a sunny weekend so what to do? How about a beach barbecue?

On the way to the beach I saw some cyclists I hadn't seen before: a five year old with his dad and brother, and a four year old with kiddie wheels with her mom. Of course I'm guessing their ages but I'm pretty sure they were new cyclists. Warm weather (above freezing in the sun) and mostly ice free bikeways meant that there was a lot of people about. Some were skating on the ice of the sea:

although there were some rough spots on the ice. The bright areas in the picture above are smooth ice created by frozen water, and the darker areas

is uneven ice aka frozen slosh. There were some cracks in the ice where the water gets on the ice, so it is not all due to the melting process. And I guess the ships going by will splash some water on the ice, too.

And I also saw some people sitting by the docks, something that doesn't happen when it's cold or windy but it wasn't either. The sun was up, people! (11 hours 52 minutes today ;-)

Exciting and blah!

I've got two different photos taken while riding. The first was taken a few weeks ago, early February. There had been some fresh snow, about 30 cm, which is quite a lot for one snowfall around here. The snow was powdery and dry, which meant the strong winds whipped it about and made nice snow "dunes". Although the snow drifts can be a hazard to the unwary. If half the lane is filled with snow, the thick drift can 'pull' the car deeper and you'll get stuck, or maybe you just lose control and spin the car. Well, with bikes that's less of a problem.

Anyhow, here's a nice lid of snow and the powder snow flying. The road is a small rural farm road. The snow banks are not man-high, I was kneeling a bit. :-P

Looks like a photo! :)

And here's a mundane, everyday bikeway. Nothing spectacular about that.

Blah!

Think positive!

Since the beginning of the year 2015 it has been legal to ride a bicycle without any lights! Yes, really! It's true! Now it is enough to have a headlight or some other light strapped onto the rider, when before the light had to be attached TO THE BIKE. That means I've lost dozens of chances to feel smug and superior to those headlight wearing lawbreakers.

What's left? The lightless ninjas, of course. But the ninjas just are so lame, they don't give me enough satisfaction. Thank god there are still some people with red lights on front, so I can think to myself 'tut tut, are you riding backwards?'

Cyclist Crashes with Elk!

I've been enjoying the weather lately! Many, many days and nights of sunshine, and the 'magical' +25°C has been broken almost each day for the last two weeks. It's not so long it was below freezing and snowed some (in June! :-) so I guess the below average temperatures must me balanced with the current heat.

Earlier it was so cold that I couldn't get my fingers to type, and now it's too hot to do anything exhausting (like typing) so this will be short too. I've taken occasional photos at the new underpass they're trying to build, but I'm not ready to post them yet. Neither are my "snow in June" pics available yet unless I can figure out how to transfer them to my computer. Too smart electronics or not smart enough user?

A funny headline in the news caught my eye today: a cyclist was riding downhill, failed to see the elk crossing the road and crashed. Cyclist vs elk crashes are very rare. Maybe this was the first one? The cyclist suffered a few broken bones and the elk got a scare. And the comments section was very entertaining.  

Worn out

I was doing some bike maintenance the other day and snapped some pics of the tyres I was taking out/replacing.

Do you think this is worn enough to be replaced? The studded winter tyre, with nice little "grin" on the side. Not quite big enough for the inner tube to burst out, but not a lot longer and I'd get balloons. Well, that's for the next winter to worry about.

I'm not even 100% sure if this is the same tyre or the other one, but I think it is. Isn't the inside supposed to be smooth? Sidewall damage suggests I could poke my finger trough. The threads are visible and out all around the bottom.

The threads are even wearing marks on the inner tube. This photo shows the marks on the "contact patch" part of the tube, that is, the part which is flat against the ground. I had some other inner tubes which had similar marks on the sidewall part of the tube, as a result of sidewall damage on the outer tube, too low pressure I guess.

Well, now I got newly patched tyres and the ride is smooth again. I'll have to report later how my "saran wrap around the inner tube" experiment does.

Open letter to the bloke in front of me

(upping an old rant from the drafts)
<start rant>
As we were approaching the intersection, I noticed you slowing down and looking over your shoulder. "Ah, a clear sign of someone who wants to do a left turn", I thought and positioned myself more to the right.

Then there was the hand signal. Anyone could have no more doubts of your intentions as you raised your left hand. Excellent.

What was not excellent was you slowing down and inching right. Which blocked my route so I had to brake. Did you expect me to pass you on the left? I'm not going to do it, as it is both illegal and stupid to do so.

I lost momentum and I had to accelerate again. That move you made cause me to arrive about one second late at my very important meeting with the telly. I'm glad I didn't miss Emmerdale because of you!

<end rant>

video spamming

The video camera worked again so I got some footage from it. And it was sunny enough to the camera to capture something! So here's some video spamming.

First, just some scenery from the ride:

Then the confused lorry driver trying to find a way to the street again, and a map reading gent trying to find out where he is...

As it was afternoon there was a lot of people around. The groups of gangsters on bikes... and very young "English rider" :-P

Digging up the dirt

One Inch of Grass

There's some green grass on the lawns. Maybe one inch high in average. On some spots it's even two inches, amazing. I can't say the trees or bushes are getting green yet. No leaves, you see.

Excellent driving by OYS-941

The May 1st celebrations are the unofficial opening of picnic season. This time the weather kept any picnics from getting out of hand (rain showers, 10m/s wind, temperatures below +3C tend to cool the enthusiasm for it even if plenty of alcohol is included) but I was happy to be back to normal. This afternoon, after the sleet had stopped raining I met this example of fine driving.

The driver is obviously a highly trained professional driver, because he managed to keep his big vehicle on the narrow bikeway. Then he jumped off and went inside, probably to ask where the loading docks are. ( I doubt they'll use the front door for moving things? That's what loading docks are for, right?))

He picked a good spot by stopping there. Blocked the whole bikeway. On the left, a narrow gap with snow. On the right, soggy mud. Excellent.

Goodbye!

This was probably the last time I rode on ice this spring. So today I took the plunge and swapped out the studded tyre. Now I'm riding a lot more quietly. :)

The ice fishers have been fighting a losing battle for a long time. Last week they still had some ice. The ice field was away from rapid currents of the hydro plant so it was slow to melt.

Here they only have a tiny bit left before they are beached. Or forced into boats.

Higher And Higher

The ice layer on the street gets higher than the sidewalk next to it. And if I recall correctly, the kerb stone was pretty high on this street. A new ice age in the making?

Here's what the temperature curve looks like on a nearby weather station. From the low of -25C, the temperature as been getting higher and higher, almost reaching -5C today. Just ignore the sharp drop at the end and we have a good hockey stick curve to prove the climate is heating up! 10 degrees in the 12 last hours, and if the rate keeps true we'll reach boiling point in a week. Forecast -22C for the night and -10C for tomorrow. Pretty typical March weather.

This isn't a good curve to show the power of the sun, but I'll try to remember to take a screenshot of one of those cold night and warm days (-20C to +0C) later on. In April, maybe.

Crazy World: No Cycling In Snow!

I usually check the 'crazy world' section on the tabloid papers to see what crazy things has happened around the world. Like a town banning dying, because the cemetery is full. Or the Norwegian fox who stole a phone and sent a text message to the owner. Or the nest of unicorns found in North Korea.

I just read that according to road.cc cyclists in Bologna, Italy will be fined for cycling after snowfall during the winter. The same rule also applies to other two wheelers like scooters. The fine is the same size as for car drivers don't have snow chains or winter tyres during the winter. (I wonder if they'd fine cyclists with studded tyres?)

Now, winter tyres are mandatory for cars also here in Finland. Either studded tyres or 'friction tyres' without studs. But there is no reason for us to ban cycling in the winter. After all, snow and "unpolished" ice is not too slippery to ride on, and with a little maintenance the bikeways can be kept rideable nearly all year around even with regular summer tyres, let alone with studded tyres. Just get some lights and ride. Simple as that.

We have  a lot of winter cycling. The Italian blogger says it's 12% of all trips during the winter, which may be true. I've seen some published research which gives the all year share 21% and it is lower in the winter. It's only on very slippery days or on very cold days when the rates really plummet.

And that post also tells me that apparently there's going to be some winter cycling congress here in Oulu. I read about that from a foreign blog... does that mean I'm out of touch of local cycle events? :-P

Winter photo 5th Dec

After the days of -20°C or below the -11°C we had felt balmy. And the warmer weather brought a little of fresh snow with it.