What about spring?

Coincidentally, two decades ago at this time of year I was just coming out of my first full winter up here and starting to train for the double century I planned for the summer solstice of 1988. The winter had been moderate, though full of exciting mountain activity. The snow had already started to recede from the roadsides.

The magazine I had moved north to work for was obviously going down the tubes. After repeated bouncing paychecks, the staff had all walked out. I followed the first rule of the working class cyclist: when unemployed, train hard.

Road training isn't happening this year. Walls of snow hem in all the minor roads. They'll be around for awhile. Our local conservation commission won't be able to have the usual Earth Day roadside cleanup because we won't be able to get at most of the roadsides by then.

I usually start bike commuting as soon as I rotate back to Wolfe City. Even that is in question, as the Jackson touring center may try to keep flogging it until late April instead of the beginning of the month. More than half of the last eight years, we haven't even made it to April. And it's traditional that consumer interest usually ends at least a week before we pull the plug up there.

Ski conditions will deteriorate long before the road look inviting or the trails are even visible. Maybe I'll have to go for an hour slog on slush-shoes before heading to work between the end of skiing and the beginning of practical riding.

News Flash: Chinese Factory Workers Must be Treated as Human After All

A front page article in Bicycle Retailer and Industry News for February 1 announced that various pressures will drive costs higher in the bike industry for 2008. In addition to material and energy costs, Chinese factories are now required to provide health care, benefits and a higher minimum wage for their workers.

I have been saying for years that we could not continue to prop up our prosperity on virtual slavery in other countries. One bike rep laughed at me in the late nineties when I asked how soon we would run out of underdeveloped nations to exploit.

"China's huge," he said. "If costs go up in one town or province we can just move to another one."

People only belatedly realize that evolution accelerates exponentially, so each disadvantaged nation realizes its true advantages far more quickly than the last one did. Sooner than expected, you have to come up with a system that is actually fair to all.

How terribly inconvenient.

How about another foot of snow?

March is coming in like a big, wet sneeze. After the foot of snow now being delivered, we can expect a brief break with daytime temperatures above freezing before three days of snow, sleet, rain and freezing rain, according to today's National Weather Service forecast.

The snow banks along my section of road are already well over six feet high. This is a flat, straight stretch without a lot of slope to the ground to give the snow an artificial lift. In tighter sections the snowbanks pinch the road so that two large vehicles can't fit through at the same time. I mean pickup trucks and fatass SUVs, not the really big things, like dump trucks, logging trucks and other massive beasts.

A few cyclists still defy the weather and defensive driving wisdom by going out. One was not only riding south down the shoulder of NH Route 16 in Intervale with inadequate lighting in the deep dusk next to heavy traffic, he was swerving wildly to avoid the large and frequent patches of ice coating said shoulder. His swerves brought him up to, and occasionally into, the travel lane. And this was someone equipped in a way that made him appear to be a real cyclist, not some unfortunate DUI dub on his WallyCo full suspension Mound of Bike. He was cutting sometimes as much as four feet laterally at a speed in the mid to high teens, so it was pretty abrupt.

Inadequate lighting seems to be a theme. Down in the meat grinder of North Conway, at the same hour of a different day, I saw another inadequately lighted cyclist on a mid- to high-grade older mountain bike, just heading into the death canyon between the heavy traffic pulsing through main street's narrowed lanes and the parked cars. Doors swung into that space even as pedestrians popped out from between cars at random intervals. And the grey slush swilled all around, all around, and the grey slush swilled all around. One strip of fixed red LEDs gleamed dully from his seatpost,while a single blue-white helmet lamp announced his arrival in front. Oncoming traffic in the narrowed roadway made it impossible to give him generous clearance and his cautious speed made it pretty unworkable to stay behind him until conditions improved, which would probably be May.

Reveling in the Nordic ski conditions, I still understand the lure of summer's open roads, and the private spring classics we all ride to prepare for them. Just make sure you actually get there.

Six More Weeks

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on Saturday. I didn't give it much thought, because no matter what the Prophet of Punxsutawney prognosticates, winter either lasts six more weeks or is over in a month and a half around here. And what follows it usually isn't pretty.

One could believe spring was right around the corner when the weather forecasters over the weekend told us we'd see warm rain Tuesday and Wednesday. I didn't quite get the fixed gear down and start lubing the chain, but I thought about it. Yet here we are on Tuesday morning looking at steadily falling snow, and the schools are all closed. The rain will come tomorrow, we are told, but mixed with snow. The theme of this endless winter continues. It is mild but snowing. I should drag my wife out to the glades out back to use this layer of fluffy stuff on top of the firm base.

Cycling is not a pure pleasure most of the time. It's hard to relax completely into it when it can evoke a reaction from some passing jackass at any moment. In the woods, one can focus purely on the personal endeavor of getting from here to there under one's own power. On the road, there's always that threat of audience reaction. Born performers thrive on audience reaction. In the right mood I have the mental middle finger up and just go for it. But that in itself is an extra layer of resistance. You can be right and still lose. You can have a better way of life and still be overwhelmed by the mass of people who won't or can't take it up.

It's still worth doing. In fact, it needs to be done. There are more reasons to do it than not to do it. But not right now. There's skiing.

Sheldon's Gone...

Sheldon Brown has died. He had already been knocked off his bike by ill health. While I never met him, we had communicated over bike repair issues. He was widely known as an authority on all matters in cycling as well as many other topics. He will be missed.

I want a Traveler's Check

Even though I will probably never go anywhere but places I can ride to from my own driveway, I really want the new Surly Traveler's Check. Little did they know when they introduced the Cross Check in nineteen-ninety-whatever that it would play into such a perfectly enticing name for a perfectly enticing bike.

Imagine the full size Cross Check, my candidate for The Perfect Exploring Bike, fitted with S and S frame couplers so it can be knocked down to a normal luggage size for airline travel without paying the usual bike penalty. No weird-ass folding bike. I know Bike Fridays are an incredible piece of engineering. I admire them greatly. But I prefer to blend in if possible, not stand out on something odd-looking, however trick. I'm the secret agent type of guy, not the drum major or the clown. Clown I may actually be, but I don't flaunt it.

With winter still gripping the land, I am not doing anything with bikes right now except thinking about them from time to time. The skiing has been holding up in spite of what is actually a mild winter. All that could change if this thaw we just entered decides to turn into a long intro to April. Then I'll be back out on the fixed gear, debating a Steamroller as well as the TC.

Driver retracts lawsuit against dead victim's parents

The Spanish motorist who was suing the parents of the teenager he killed with his car has dropped the lawsuit after public outrage.