cycling

Experimentation with cycle clothing: 8 years later

Well, some might recall a few years ago I was trying ideas for cycle clothing, and later followed up with some findings.

My situation has changed a bit… the death of a former work colleague shook me up quite a bit, and while I have been riding, I haven’t been doing it nearly as much. Then, COVID-19 reared its ugly head.

Suffice to say, my commute is now one side of the bedroom to the other. Right at this moment, I’m in self-imposed lockdown until I can get my booster shot: I had my second AstraZenica shot on the 4th November, and the Queensland Government has moved the booster shots to being 3 months after the second shot, so for me, that means I’m due on the 4th February. I’m already booked in with a local chemist here in The Gap, I did that weeks ago so that the appointment would be nailed to the floor, and thus currently I’m doing everything in my power to ensure that appointment goes ahead on-time.

I haven’t been on the bike much at all. That doesn’t mean though that I stop thinking about how I can make my ride more comfortable.

Castle Clothing Coveralls

Yes, I’m the one clad in yellow far left.

They had quite few positives:

  • They were great in wet weather
  • They were great in ambient temperatures below 20°C
  • The pocket was handy for storing keys/a phone/a wallet
  • They had good visibility day and night
  • They keep the wind out well. (On the Main Range, Threadbo Top Station was reporting 87km/hr wind gusts that day.)

But, they weren’t without their issues:

  • They’re (unsurprisingly) no good on a sunny summer’s day (on the day that photo was taken, it was borderline too hot, weather prediction was for showers and those didn’t happen)
  • They’re knackered after about 30 washes or so: the outer waterproof layer peels off the lining
  • In intermittent rain / sunshine, they’d keep you dry during the rainy bit, but when the sun came out, you’d get steamed

To cap it off, they’re no longer being manufactured. Castle Clothing have basically canned them. They’ve got a plain yellow version with no stripes, but otherwise, nothing like their old product. I wound up buying 4 of them in the end… the first two had to be chucked because of the aforementioned peeling problem, the other two are in good condition now, but eventually they’ll need replacement.

Mammoth Workwear do have some alternatives. The “Supertouch” ones I have tried, they’re even shorter lived than the Castle ones, and feel like wearing a plastic bag. The others are either not night-time visible, or they’re lined for winter use.

So, back to research again.

Zentai suits?

Now, I know I’ve said previously I’m no MAMIL… and for the most part I stand by this. I did try wearing a stinger suit on the bike once… on the plus side they are very breathable, so quite comfortable to ride in. BUT, three negatives with stinger suits:

That got me thinking, what’s the difference between a stinger suit and an open-face zentai suit? Not a lot. The zentai suit, if it has gloves, can be bought as a “mitten” or (more commonly) a proper multi-finger glove version. They come in a lot more colours than a stinger suit does. They’re about the same price. And there’s no logos, just plain colours (or you can do various patterns/designs if that’s your thing).

A downside is that the zipper is at the back, which means answering calls from nature is more difficult. But then again, some stinger suits and most wetsuits also feature a back-entry.

I’ve got two coming to try the idea out. I suspect they’ll get worn over other clothing, I’ll just duck into a loo, take my shirt off, put the zentai suit on, then jump on the bike to ride to my destination… that way my shirt isn’t soaked with sweat. We’ll see.

One is a black one, which was primarily bought to replace one of the stinger suits for swimming activities, but I can also evaluate the fabric too (it is the usual lycra material).

The other is a silver one (thus a lycra/latex blend), to try out the visibility — it’ll be interesting to see whether it’s somewhat water-repellent due to the latex mix in the material, and see what effect this has on sweat.

Both of these are open-face! You should never try swimming with a full-face zentai suit. I can’t imagine getting caught in the rain ending well either, and the ability to see where you’re going is paramount when operating any vehicle (especially a bicycle)!

They’ll turn up in a week or two, I can try them out then. Maybe won’t be the final solution, but it may answer a few questions.

Heavy Wet/Cold weather gear

So, with the lighter-weight class out of the way, that turns my attention to what to do in truly foul weather, or just bitterly cold weather.

Now, let me define the latter: low single digits °C. Possibly with a westerly breeze carrying it. For some reading this, this will feel like a hot summer’s day, but for those of us in Brisbane, temperatures this low are what we see in the middle of winter.

The waterproof overalls I was wearing before worked well in dry-but-cold weather, however I did note my hands copped the cold… I needed gloves. The ends of the legs also could get tangled with the chain if I wasn’t careful, and my shoes would still get wet. Riggers boots work okay for this, but they’re hard to come by.

I happened to stumble on Sujuvat ratkaisut Oy, who do specialist wet-weather clothing meant for Europe. Meeko (who runs the site) has a commercial relationship with a few manufacturers, notably AJGroup who supply the material for a lot of Meeko’s “extreme” range.

The suits are a variant of PVC, which will mean they’re less breathable than what I have now, but should also mean they’re a lot more durable. There’s a decent range of colours available, with many options having the possibility of reflective bands, attached gloves and attached wellington boots. It’s worth noting the BikeSuit (no longer available) I was looking at 8 years ago was also a PVC outfit.

In the winter time, the big problem is not so much sweat, but rather, sweat being hit by wind-chill. Thus I’m ordering one of the Extreme Drainage Coveralls to try them out.

I’ve seen something similar out of AliExpress, however the options there are often built for the Chinese market… so rarely feature size options that fit someone like myself. Most of the Chinese ones are dark colours, with one “tan”-coloured option listed, and a couple of rubber ones that were lighter colours (a dark “pink”, and a yellow). Some of the rubber ones also had a strange opening arrangement: a tube opening in the stomach, which you pulled yourself through, then clamped shut with a peg. Innovative, but looks very untidy and just begging to get caught in something! I’ll stick with something a bit more conventional.

The coverall I’m ordering will be a 500g/m² white fabric… so about twice the weight of my current Castle workwear overalls (which are about 330g/m²), and will have the gloves and boots attached. I’m curious to see how that’s done up close, and see how it works out in my use case.

Being a white rather than a yellow/orange will make them less visible in the day time, but I suspect this won’t be much of an issue as it’s night-time visibility I’m particularly after. Also, being white instead of a “strong” fluro colour will likely be better at horse endurance rides, as horses tend to react to fluro colours.

The zip arrangement intrigues me as well… it’s been placed up high so that you can pretty much wade into water up to your chest and not get wet. There’s a lighter-weight option of the same suit, however with fewer options for colours. If the extreme version doesn’t work out for cycling, I might look at this alternative (the bike doesn’t react to strong colours like a horse does).

There’s about a 2-month lead-time on this gear because it’s made-to-order, a reasonable trade-off given you get to more-or-less get it made exactly how you want it. Looking around, I’m seeing off-the-shelf not-customisable outfits at AU$400 a pop, €160 (~AU$252) is looking a good option.

The fact that this is being run as a small side-hustle is commendable. I look forward to seeing the product.

2022/01/22 by Public Syndication Thinktank 0

Climate Change

No doubt many will have heard about the “bushfire crisis” that has basically been wreaking havoc for the past month. Here in Brisbane things haven’t been too bad, but we’ve had our fair share of smoke haze and things of course are exceptionally dry.

From where I sit, this is a situation we have let ourselves get into. Some argue that this is all because of the lack of back-burning, and to a certain extent this is true.

Back-burning doesn’t make it rain however. The lack of back-burning is a casualty of a few things, partly a lack of firefighting resources, and also significantly, a hotter, dryer climate.

Climate change has been known about for a long time. When I was growing up in the early 90s, the name used was the “greenhouse effect”. The idea being that all the “greenhouse gasses” we were generating, was causing heat to be trapped in the atmosphere like a greenhouse, and thus heating up the planet.

Back then, there didn’t seem to be any urgency to combat the problem.

So, we’ve just continued the way we always have since the start of the industrial revolution. Some things have improved, for instance electric vehicles just weren’t practical then, they are slowly gaining traction.

Large-scale PV generation in the 90s would have been seen as a joke, now we have entire paddocks dedicated to such activities. Renewable power generation is big business now. Whilst it won’t displace all traditional methods, it has an important place going forward.

Yet, in spite of all this progress, we’ve still got people in government, and in big corporate organisations who cling to the “business as usual” principle.

When South Australia announced they were going to install a big battery to help back-up their power supply, the idea was poo poohed, with many saying it wouldn’t be big enough to make a difference. What it doesn’t have in running-time, it makes up for in very fast responsiveness to load changes.

A coal-fired power station operates by using thermal energy produced by burning coal, to boil water to produce steam which drives turbines that in turn, drive electric generators. A nuclear station isn’t much different — the thermal source is the only bit that changes. Geothermal is basically using a nuclear station that mother nature has provided.

The thing all these systems have in common is rotating mass. It takes significant energy to cause a step-change in rotational speed of the turbine. If the turbine is still, you’re going to have to pump a lot of energy in, somehow, to get it spinning. If it’s spinning, it’ll take a lot of energy to stop it. Consequently, they are not known for reaction times. Cold starts for these things in the realm of a day is not unknown. They also don’t take kindly to sudden changes of load. It is during these times the emissions from such generators are at their worst.

Solar is great during the day when it’s fine, but on a cloudy day like today the output is likely to be greatly diminished, and it’ll be utterly useless at night. If we had big enough battery storage, then yes, we could theoretically capture enough during the sunny days to carry us over the nights and cloudy days. That’s a big if.

So I still see the traditional methods being a necessary evil. The combination of all three options though (renewables, traditional generation and battery storage) could be a winner. Let the older stations carry the evening base-load and keep the battery topped up, ramp them down a bit when we’re getting good renewable output, use the batteries to cover the load spikes.

Nuclear could be an option, however to my mind they have two big problems:

  1. Public perception
  2. Commissioning time

Without a doubt, the modern designs for these things has greatly improved on what graced the sites of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima. They generate waste still, but in many cases the half-life and quantity of this waste is greatly reduced. The biggest problem though is public perception, as there are many who will not differentiate between the designs, and will immediately respond: “not in my back yard!”

Even if you could win peoples’ trust, you’ve got a second problem, getting them built and commissioned in time. If we had started in the 90s, then maybe they’d be doing useful things for us now. That boat has long set sail and is dipping over the horizon now.

Transportation is another area where we’re, as a nation, addicted to fossil fuels. It’s not hard to see why though. Go outside a major capital city, and infrastructure for a purely electric vehicle disappears.

Moreover, the manufacturers, stuck in their echo-chamber, don’t see larger electric vehicles as worth the investment.

Back in 2007, my father was lucky enough to win the Multicap Art Union, and so replaced the Subaru stationwagon he’s owned since 1982 with a Holden Rodeo ute (we had the choice between that or Toyota).

This vehicle was chosen with the intent of towing a caravan with it — something he later purchased. The caravan weighs about two tonnes. Yes, an electric vehicle could theoretically tow it, and could even do a better job, but at the time, no such vehicle was available from any of the available suppliers.

To my knowledge, this is still the case. Few, if any of the electric vehicles on the market here in Australia, have the necessary facilities to tow a caravan even if the motor is capable of it.

Then there’s infrastructure to consider. A pure electric vehicle would probably be impractical outside of major regional centres and capital cities. Once you got away from the network of high-power chargers, you better plan for staying a few days in each town where you charge, because it will take that long to charge that battery from a 240V 10A socket!

Diesel-electric though, could be a winner since diesel engines similarly operate most efficiently at constant speed and could drive a generator to charge battery storage.

A return of the gas turbine engine could also be a good option. This was tried before, but suffered from the typical characteristic of turbines, they don’t like changing speed quickly. Poor throttle response is a deal-breaker when the engine is providing the traction, but it is a non-issue in a generator. They run on a wide variety of fuel types, including petroleum and diesel, so could utilise existing infrastructure, and the engines are generally simpler designs.

Is there research going into this? Not from what I’ve seen. Instead, they trot out the same old style vehicles. Many people buy them because that’s all that’s on offer that fulfils their requirements. Consequently this inflates the apparent desire for these vehicles, so the vehicle makers carry on as usual.

The lack of cycle infrastructure also pushes people into vehicles. When I do ride to work (which I’ve been trying to do more of), I find myself getting up early and getting on the road before 4:30AM to avoid being a nuisance to other road users.

In particular road users who believe: “I paid vehicle registration, therefore this road is MINE!” I needn’t waste space on that assertion, the Queensland government raised about $557M in revenue (page 14) from vehicle registration in 2018-19, whilst the DTMR’s expenditure at that time was over $6bn (page 15).

The simple truth is that a lot of these initiatives are seen as nothing but a “cost”. Some simple-minded people even say that the very concept of climate change is invented simply to slug the developed world. We need to get past this mentality.

The thing is, business as usual is costing us more. We’re paying for it big time with the impact on the climate that these emissions are having. Yes, climate does go in cycles, but what we’re experiencing now is not a cycle.

I can remember winters that got down to the low signal digits here in Brisbane. I have not experienced those sorts of conditions here for a good 15 years now. Yes, this is a land of drought and flooding rain, however, we seem to be breaking climate records that have stood longer than any of us have been alive by big margins.

The “fire season”, which is used to determine when back-burning should take place has also been lengthening. It will get to a point where there just isn’t a safe time to conduct back-burning as theoretically every day of the year will be “fire season” conditions.

This is costing us.

  • It will cost us with property being destroyed.
  • It will cost us with work being disrupted.
  • It will cost us with food production being threatened.
  • It will cost us with health issues due to increasing ambient temperatures and air pollution issues.

Lately I’ve been suffering as a result of the smoke haze that has been blowing through the Brisbane area. I recognise that it is nowhere near as bad as what Sydney has to put up with. Whilst not severely asthmatic, I have had episodes in the past and can be susceptible to bronchitis.

On one occasion, this did lead to a case of pneumonia.

About a fortnight ago I started to go down with a bout of bronchitis. I’ve had two visits to the doctor already, prescribed antibiotics and a puffer, normally by now my symptoms would be subsiding by now. This time around, that has not been the case. Whilst the previous bouts have been stress-related, I think this time it is smoke-induced.

I think once the smoke clears, I’ll recover. I am not used to this level of air pollution however, and I think if it becomes the new “normal”, it will eventually kill me. If I lived in Sydney, no question, that level probably would kill me.

This is a wake-up call. Whilst I don’t plan to join the Extinction Rebellion — as I don’t think blocking up traffic is doing anyone any favours, I do think we need to change direction on our emissions. If we carry on the way we are now, things are only going to get worse.

2019/12/22 by Public Syndication Rants 0

Would people kindly get off my case about driving?

There’s a couple of truths in life:

  • You don’t get to choose your biological family
  • You don’t get to choose your place of birth

Now, as it happens I ordinarily do not have any real issues with my family or my place of birth, except on one matter: I have never possessed a driver’s license, and really don’t wish to obtain one.

I can get around just fine on my bicycle when I need to. That mode of transport is not nearly as limiting as people think it is. Sure, it’ll take me longer to get places, and I need to perhaps do more planning than most, but I can get where I’m needed.

Yet, time and time again, I run up against the same problem: people assume that people my age, drive cars. People then make the leap to suggest that you’re a useless person if you don’t drive.

I did try to obtain a learner’s permit some time ago. I tried the written test twice: at $20 a pop, at a time when I was unemployed. I wasn’t sure how I was going to fund obtaining a vehicle and paying the necessary fees, but I figured I’d try the first step.

I failed both attempts on one question.

I decided that an identity card was more important: I researched what documentation was required, paid my dues, handed over said documentation, wandered out with a new 18+ card. I figured if I needed to try the driver’s license again, I’d be back.

That was in December 2007. The requirements for obtaining a license have since become more onerous, and let’s face it, there are too many cars on the road today. I’d be looking at taking about 200 hours off from work in order to get the necessary log-book time up and spending tens of thousands of dollars on driving lessons. It isn’t financially worth it.

I re-discovered cycling about 6 months later. I bought a folding bicycle, and started using that to get around, and realised that this was a viable mode of transport for me. Over time, I did longer and longer trips.

The longest I’ve gone unsupported was about 82km. A ride from my home at The Gap to the park at Logan Central takes about 3 hours each way with a couple of rest stops en route. I get going early, take my time, and get there without any trouble.

My work is at Milton, a run of about 10km: I can get there in an hour: faster than public transport. In the early mornings, my times tend to be closer to 45 minutes.

In short, there is just no useful purpose for me to have a car. More to the point, I’d have nowhere to park it. What limited space is available at the front of our property is occupied by a caravan and the neighbours’ numerous cars. If it weren’t for the caravan in fact, it would be all cars belonging to the neighbours.

Moreover, my body actually needs the physical exercise. It’s a fact that moving around is required to keep bodily functions working. You don’t move around enough: bowel movements slow down. I already had one bowel-related health scare this year.

I have not been riding much lately due to scheduling — and I feel my health is suffering greatly because of it.

In spite of this, I still get people, family included, shaking their metaphorical car keys in my face suggesting I should be driving too.

It’s as if, as a non-driver, you’re not welcome in this society. You’re seen as a waste of space — you don’t belong here. We’re seen as “shits” that are there wasting other peoples’ money.

I’ve had a lifetime of that sort of treatment for numerous reasons.

Back in the late 80s, the argument was that I had an Autism diagnosis, therefore I should be going into institutionalised care. Then the same condition was used to argue that I belonged in a special school. At high school, the same reasoning was probably used to put me in the lowest-grade maths and English classes.

I am generally able to focus on a task and do it well. This is probably the reason why I wound up doing double Bachelor-level IT/electronics degrees at uni, and passing both.

I could have instead just been institutionalised. Occupying a tax-payer funded bed. I’d be a record in the NDIS system today. Completely un-employable, generally useless. Definitely not earning >$60000/year doing full-stack software development. There is income tax being paid amongst that — whether my day job is actually worth what I get paid is a debate I’ll leave for others.

The fact remains that I work for a living, and pay my own way.

However, there is a difference to laying out a PCB or writing a code module; and manoeuvring ~600kg of metal travelling at 50+km/hr through suburban roads. One requires focus and patience, the other requires millisecond-level decision-making and reaction times.

I am not someone who thinks well at speed, and I would make no friends driving a car along Waterworks Road at 30km/hr in the morning peak-hour traffic. At 30-40km/hr, I can just manage on the bicycle. I can do up to 60km/hr, but I’m not comfortable at all going that speed!

In a car, you are expected to do the speed limit (50-60km/hr in the case of Waterworks Road). Brisbane’s drivers are not forgiving of anyone who can’t “keep up”.

There are people who have no place driving a car, and I would count myself as being a member of that group. I avoid being on the roads much of the time for that very reason — as a courtesy to drivers who would likely prefer to not be stuck behind a slow cyclist like myself.

Coupled with the health problems: me taking up driving would be an early death sentence. If this is really what is expected, I might as well stop now and get the dying bit over and done with, it’ll be one less person on this planet consuming ever dwindling resources.

It’ll be more humane for me to just quietly go, then to be constantly in and out of medical care for “this” medical condition, or “that” medical condition, costing my employer sick-leave, costing my health fund, occupying resources in our health system, simply because I didn’t get enough exercise.

If a non-driver like me is as useless as people make out, then I guess it won’t hurt anyone that I’m gone. … or maybe we can re-think the “non-drivers are useless” concept. One of the ideas in this paragraph is wrong. I’ve given up trying to decide which!

2019/06/02 by Rants 0

Improved Helmets: Project background

Well, looks like this project is very much thrust into the spotlight having been covered in Hacklet 105 . Mine’s probably the least technical of the lot, it’s definitely worth having a look at what the others are doing, as there’s some really innovative ideas there. Many thanks to @Mike Szczys and @Adam Fabio for the shout-out. 🙂

One thing I haven’t done with this project yet, is to actually post the background of why I’ve started this. A big part of this was I wanted to get permission from the family of a work colleague of mine so that I could mention him by name, but at this stage, permission has not been given, so I have to keep things anonymous.

On the 12th of February, a colleague of mine was cycling to work over the Go Between Bridge here in Brisbane when he lost control on a bend as the bridge joins the Bicentennial Bikeway. This is an off-road, dedicated cycleway, so no cars, and supposedly no pedestrians, however many seem to not understand what a sign with a bicycle symbol and the letters O, N, L, Y mean. (I usually ride past and comment: “Funny bike you’re riding!”. Since this accident though, I intend to be a lot more assertive.)

(Above: the crash scene. That blood smear is still visible on the path today.)

I’m no crash investigator, but I did study physics, and I cycle as my sole means of transport myself, having no driver’s license. (And no interest in getting one either.) I’m familiar with what that bridge is like to cycle over, having done it many times shortly after it opened when I worked at West End.

Looking at the scene though, it was apparent to me that my colleague was going much faster than was sensible for that stretch of road, and something caused him to lose control just prior to the bend.

The resulting impact with the railing was devastating: in addition to a few broken bones elsewhere in the body, he suffered skull fractures, and what I understand now to be a Coup-Contrecoup injury to the brain.

I remember that morning arriving at work early (we both were early birds, and had he not crashed, he would have beaten me that morning), sitting down at my desk and preparing to do battle with U-Boot and an industrial PC, when at 6:34AM, the office phone rings. It was then I learned that my colleague was in a serious condition in hospital, and I then found myself frantically looking for contact details for his wife. (Which were nowhere to be found.)

We later learned he’d never regain consciousness, having lost all executive function in the brain. The only bits that worked, were the bits responsible for low-level muscle control. From bright mind, to persistent vegetative state. He passed away about a fortnight after his accident.

During his brief time in ICU, we were told by one of the people there that these sorts of injuries were common in bicycle and motorcycle accidents. That worried me.

That tells me that perhaps, something is wrong with these blocks of foam we insist on strapping to our heads, and that we’ve missed something. This is one of the first goals I’d like to pinpoint, but so far, has been the most difficult: trying to get hold of data that would statistically prove or disprove how “common” these injuries are.

There’s no point in protecting the skull itself if the brain is to get shaken around to the point that the person winds up with total mental incapacitation.

Research seems to suggest that helmets have had a big hand in reducing the incidents of these injuries, but the fact that it’s still “common”, seems to suggest there’s lots more work to be done.

The standards are focussed on linear acceleration, and single impacts at no more than about 20km/hr. Is that sufficient? I regularly find myself doing 40, and I’m no speed demon. (Hell, I’ve accidentally found myself doing 71km/hr once!) I think it’s time the standards were revised. The question is: how?

My colleague was a key member of our team, and one of the brighter minds I know. While he shouldn’t have taken that bend at such speed and expect to get away with it, he did not deserve to die. I can’t save him, but perhaps I can help save someone else. That’s what this project is about.

2016/05/01 by Improved Helmets Projects Public Syndication 0

Improved Helmets: Senseless article

Doing a bit more searching, previously I had stumbled across one article by Bike Magazine Australia entitled “Lifting The Lid”.

I did try to get in touch with the author via the email link on the website, but heard nothing. However, it appears, that article is a reprint of this article , which was published by Bicycling magazine in June 2013. I thought it might’ve been older than that.

There’s also a furious rebuttal by the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute. Well lets face it, being provocative helps magazines sell sometimes, although it pays to not be too provocative.

However, I feel the author has a point, even if he gets some details wrong.

It appears that the AIM system mentioned in the article is still in its prototype stage. I doubt this one is royalty free, but for sure it’ll be one to watch, owing to its safety features, and the fact that it’s a very different construction, should make for a cooler helmet to wear in summer.

2016/04/02 by Improved Helmets Projects Public Syndication 0

Improved Helmets: An alternate test rig

I was doing some thinking last night, then it occurred to me. We are trying to do simulations of crashes using linear motion. Dropping a helmet vertically. That’s linear.

For sure, it’s a good-enough approximation when you hit something head-on… or is it? If you come off and fly through the air, then maybe, you’ll strike something dead-level.

More probable though, is you’ll follow an arc, under projectile motion. The most likely scenario is that as the bicycle/motorcycle tilts over, you follow it. It’s not going to be a direct-to-the-ground vertical drop of your head, but rather, a circular arc.

So how do we test for it? I suppose like this:

2016/03/06 by Improved Helmets Projects Public Syndication 0

Improved Helmets: Gathering statistics

One of the stated goals is to try and determine how statistically significant TBI is in motorcycle and bicycle accidents.

Null hypothesis here will be that motorcycle accidents will have a much higher prevalence of TBI than in bicycle accidents, down to the typical routes and speeds alone.

Nick Rushworth, executive officer of Brain Injury Australia has been most helpful in pointing me to some statistics on New South Wales road crashes as well as some more general statistics from 2004-05 on TBI cases in general . His assistance in this has been a big help.

The Queensland Department of Main Roads also produces a number of reports, as well as a request form. Transport for NSW also provide statistics. I think the data is there, we’ve just got to figure out a means to drill into it.

2016/02/25 by Improved Helmets Projects Public Syndication Thinktank 0

Quaxing: yes it happens in the “west”

What is it? Well, the term “quaxing” originated from Auckland’s councillor, Dick Quax who stated:

@lukechristensen @BenRoss_AKL @Brycepearce no one in the entire western world uses the train for their shopping trips

@Brycepearce @lukechristensen @BenRoss_AKL the very idea that people lug home their weekly supermarket shopping on the train is fanciful

@Brycepearce @lukechristensen @BenRoss_AKL sounds like that would make great Tui ad. “I ride my bike to get my weekly shopping – yeah right”

While I’ve never described it as “quaxing”, and likely will not describe it that way, this is how I’ve been shopping for the past 5 years.

This, is my shopping trolley, literally… it gets unhitched and taken into the shop with me.

Shopping on the bike, "quaxing" to the twitter-croud.

Shopping on the bike, “quaxing” to the twitter-croud.

Now true, strictly speaking, Australia is not the “western world” geographically speaking. Neither is NZ; any further east and you hit the International Date Line. However this is a “westernised” country, as is NZ. Isn’t it funny how people assume cycling is merely a third-world phenomenon?

2015/06/14 by Public Syndication 1

Experimentation with cycle clothing — Part 2

Well, after my initial post about my experiment, I’ve collected a bit more information and I think I’ve settled on a solution and come up with a hypothesis of what’s going on.

Disposable coveralls

As I suspected, the disposible overalls did have a problem in the longevity department. Not a big one mind you. One pair got ripped when the leg brushed up against the corner of a drawer. Fixable with some tape. A few weekends back I wore them cycling from The Gap to Logan Central and back. This is a ~82km round trip (81.56 to be exact), and represents a fairly rigorous test. They got home intact, but the tape on the seams was starting to come adrift.

I also performed a shower-test on both these and the SMS fabric ones. The MP4 ones passed with flying colours. No seepage other than where I had made ventilation holes: and that could be fixed with a storm flap. My “poor-man’s bikesuit” idea could still work.

So the MP4 ones I have, good for emergencies, I’ll continue to carry a pair just in case.  They roll up to something the size of a drink bottle, and contribute bugger all weight, so for those times I am wearing normal clothes, they’ll be great to toss over when the weather turns foul.

SMS fabric? Good in very light and brief showers only. If it’s prolonged heavy showers for anything more than about 30 seconds you’ll get drenched.

It’d be interesting to have a closer look at the Tyvek ones originally recommended.  I might investigate at some point.

Breathalon Spray Suit

So I went back to the Breathalon spray suit, which, having bought it in 2008, is now starting to look a bit frayed, particularly around the hood.  That, and there’s my attempt at adding pocket access.  I do raise a sweat, but it’s minor, and soon evaporates when I stop. I find I’m a lot more comfortable.

How is this so though? Common sense would suggest I’d sweat like a pig! The material is breathable, and so the vapour can escape. If they’re loose enough, there is also a small wind current to draw vapour out. Crucially though, being non-porous, they do not absorb my sweat, and so I don’t have the wind-chill effect of sweaty clothing.  The key here is to have minimal clothing underneath that might absorb the sweat, as this then relies on your body heat to dry it out, and will take longer.

My nits with these?

  • The zip is one-way.  However you can ignore the zip and just use the velcro storm flap as a fly.
  • No pockets at all.
  • The hood isn’t well shaped, doesn’t track one’s head movement very well, and I found the elastic caused it to obstruct my field of view
  • The yellow colour is great for daytime high visibility, but there are no reflective bands for night use.  (I tried using self-adhesive ones, they didn’t stick very well.)

Otherwise, they’re durable and lightweight.

Castle Clothing Coveralls

I mentioned these in my last post.  Well, I bit the bullet, I bought a pair, something which also necessitated me getting a Visa card for the first time in my life (I can highly recommend these as a payment method).  I tossed up between this and buying another Breathalon spray suit, Mammoth Work Wear had these for £40 plus about £30 shipping, this worked out to be under AU$140.  The Breathalon suits are $150+ without shipping.

A heads up with the Mammoth Work Wear site: ignore the sizing advice they give in the drop-down box, you want to pay attention to the sizing chart table below.  The drop-down box suggested I’d be a size L, whereas the table suggested XL.  I went XL and they’re a perfect fit.

Fedex had estimated they’d arrive on Monday, they actually arrived this afternoon.  So I tried them out on the ride home tonight.

I sweat a little more, but not significantly so.  If anything, the lining means I don’t notice them sticking so much, so in that regard they’re more comfortable.  When I got home, yes there was moisture, but I wasn’t dripping, nor did I suddenly feel cold.

They feature a two-way zip (good), with press-studs on the storm flap (not so good, velcro worked better).  The hood (not a concealed hood, which IMO is a plus) is excellent, tracking my head movement very well, sits forward far enough to keep rain off one’s face, and doesn’t block my vision.  It didn’t pose a problem with the helmet either, keeping out of the way and didn’t impede movement or significantly muffle sound.

There is one pocket on the left at the front.  Too low to be considered a “breast” pocket, but well above the waistline.  They could use an identical one on the other side, and perhaps some side pockets, as I find I’ve got nowhere to put my hands.  That said, it’s a generously sized one.  You could fit a 7″ tablet in there no problems, so can easily fit a wallet, phone and keys.

The test will be longevity, and the summer humidity.  They look well-made so we’ll see.

2014/08/08 by Public Syndication 0

Experimentation with cycle clothing

My only mode of transport these days is a bicycle.  I might get lifts from other people on occasion, but normally I ride everywhere.

It’s a great way to get around, good form of exercise, cheap and whilst I won’t be breaking any speed records, it’s not overly time consuming.  I spend more time waiting for buses and trains than I do getting places on the bike.  The downside is what to wear whilst cycling.  For cycling use, car drivers have a hard enough time seeing a cyclist as it is, so I feel safer if I’m at the very least, light-coloured, ideally day/night high visibility compliant with AS/NZS 4602:1999.  I’ve been cycling as my main mode of transport now for nearly 5 years, and over this time I’ve tried a number of things for clothing.

Regular clothing

“Normal” clothing, was naturally what I started out with.  What I find is that it quickly wears out, particularly trousers, when subjected to this sort of treatment.  The cycling movement puts a lot of stress in the crutch and thus, I find they give out within a year or two.

Cycling is also very physical, so one will sweat a lot.  So at the very least you’ll want a shirt to wear cycling, and another to change into when you get to your destination.  The high-visibility polo shirts work well for this, they’re cheap and lightweight, keep the sun off well without being too hot.

Work clothing

By this I mean industrial work clothing.  After finding that my trousers were wearing out at an alarming rate, I decided I’d go for more industrial type clothing.

I hate wearing belts, so I looked around and bought some overalls.  My preference is for ones that have a front zip.  A bloody pain in the arse to find in this country!  The likes of King Gee, Bisley, Worksense and many others tend to make those sorts for markets like in NZ, but over here they tend to sell only stud-fastening ones which I find are more time consuming to fasten.  A zip: you’re done in about 2 seconds, studs you’ll be clipping them together for about 10.  But I digress…

The ones I found were medium-weight ones, 290gsm or something like that.  In the winter, they’re okay, but once the fabric gets soaked with sweat one’s body temperature then becomes rather uneven.  In summer they’re often too hot to consider.

Lighter-weight ones might fare better in the sweat stakes, not sure about durability.  Given the high cost ($70~$120 a pair) I’ll just have to keep looking.

Ones made out of the same material as the high-visibility polo shirts could work well, no idea where to find them though if they exist.

Seeking the all-weather cycling suit

Some at this point would be screaming at me “why not lycra”?  Well, I’ve never been a fan of lycra and have no intention of becoming a MAMIL.

One evening coming home a few weeks ago, we had some very windy weather. It’s mid-winter right now, and this wind was going right through me. My clothes were wet with sweat, and with the wind, made the cold weather that much worse.

This got me thinking: what have I got or can I get, that will block the wind, without making me sweat ridiculous amounts?  It’s presently winter, and so now’s a good time to go try an experiment, and see how they fare as the weather patterns shift towards the more humid summer weather.  If I’m still wearing this clothing in July 2015, I’ll be onto something.

Breathalon spray coveralls

I had some Breathalon coveralls lying around, previously I had worn these in wet weather, and found they are not bad.

I bought this pair for about $15 off eBay, but they’re rare as hens teeth. One company sells them for about the AU$150 mark. So not the cheapest, amongst my gripes is that they’re not the most comfortable fit and they have a one-way zip which is an annoyance when nature calls. Apart from that though, they’re a bright yellow, and they’re breathable.

The other gripe I have is no pockets: this particular pair I tried cutting access slits in to gain access to the pockets in my trousers. This proved to be unwise, they now leak in wet weather, so I’ll have to look at sealing those slits somehow.

I tried them one week: I found I sweat less than I did wearing other clothing. With just a lycra stinger suit underneath, I got to work mostly dry and comfortable. This was in dry weather. Summer humidity might be another matter, but in bright sunny winter weather, they were fine. However, they’re very hard to get hold of, and are still quite expensive.

That said, they’re probably 60% of the way there.

Disposable clothing

With the above experiment being largely successful, I considered what else would make the grade. The Breathalon coveralls were okay, but they lacked some features. Could I find some material and make my own?

Will Rietveld provided the inspiration for a cheap alternative: Tyvek coveralls. These are about AU$10 a pair, are generally white in colour (okay, not strictly daytime high-vis, but at least not black like motorcycle rainsuits), very lightweight and were apparently not much different to the old Gore Tex for breathability.

Before doing this, I did some research.  I had seen these before but had dismissed the idea thinking, they’re disposable, surely they won’t last!  Looking around, I found Barefoot Jake’s article which gave them the thumbs up, and Ken K’s forum post giving them the thumbs down.  In the forum post, the comment was the failure was in the seams.  The other two articles mention taping the seams to prevent this problem.

For the cost I thought it worth giving a go. There are a few different fabrics used in this sort of clothing. Tyvek being just one.  They’re usually described in therms of protection classes.

Class 6 coveralls tend to be very flimsy, made from single layered polypropylene and are by far the cheapest at ~AU$5 a pair.  You can just about see through them, wind and water will pass right through.  Maybe you can get some in a bright colour, in which case they’re about as good as a high-vis vest.  For keeping wind and water out: useless.

Class 5 coveralls are made from slightly heavier material such as SMS fabric and are more expensive (~AU$8 a pair).  They’re more opaque (although you can still see clothing through these), will repel water and light spray and block a small amount of wind.  If you’re like me, and a bit self-conscious, you could wear these over the top of more conventional cycle clothing.

I found that water will pool on the fabric, and they are a bit more breathable.  However, the slight transparency is a little disconcerting.  They’re worth a look.

Class 4 coveralls are used for things like asbestos removal.  Materials vary, but in amongst these are the Tyvek ones recommended by Wll’s article.  They can be had for about AU$10 a pair.

I decided to start with these, buying 3 pairs of these.  I noted the fact that the seams were taped a bright orange.  The fact they were taped seemed to suggest that someone had noticed this particular failure mode and had taken particular attention to the problem.  These ones I think are the Hazguard MP4 type material, similar to Tyvek, but with a plastic-like coating.

As I’m after a single-piece suit, I dispensed with the scissors.  When I got home, I tried grabbing a pair, turning a tap on and running the water over them to see what the waterproofing was like.  The water pooled, running my hand under the pool did not reveal any leaks.  So from that perspective, they should do exactly what I’m after.

Things were getting draughty outside so I put the pair on, and after wearing them for a few hours basically just pottering around the house, I hadn’t broken out into a ball of sweat, so breathability was there, a PVC suit would have had me sweating like a pig by then.  I wore them on my way into work to try them out.

First experiments with Class 4 coveralls

First thing that became apparent: as I cycled, the back part ballooned out.  Not necessarily a bad thing, as it made me very obvious to drivers by enlarging my apparent size.  Pedalling appeared to act like a pump, pushing air into the suit, and the air appeared to be trapped.  Like in Will’s experiment, I found that I was starting to sweat after about 20 minutes, and when I got to work, I was noticably more sweaty.  However, it was just humidity, I didn’t feel like I was overheating, nor did I feel cold when the wind blew.

So not quite there, but close.  I can buy Tyvek material on a roll cheap enough, so maybe with some work, we can improve on this.

Class 5 coveralls experiment

Since the humidity really did build up quickly, I thought maybe there was something a little more breathable.  I bought a pair of coveralls that were an SMS-type fabric.  The seems are not taped, and so I suspect these will probably have a blow out at some point.  I did the same waterproofness test and found the water pooled there also, however they’re considered splash resistant, so I suspect the water would seep through eventually.

It was at this point I noticed they were slightly more transparent.  So the following Monday I cycled in them, with one of my lycra stinger suits underneath.  I got to work, not quite as sweaty as the previous week, but still with a noticeable amount of moisture.

One hypothesis: with the Breathalon suit, I also had my stinger suit underneath.  Maybe that was helping by soaking up the sweat rather than letting it bead up on my skin, and allowing it to be more efficiently evaporated?

Class 4 + stinger suit

I tried the stinger suit underneath the class 4 coveralls, and found that the amount of sweat hadn’t changed.  In fact, doing this made things worse, the moist air didn’t dissipate fast enough and once I cooled down, the cold sweat kept me a little too cool.  Without the stinger suit, I’d eventually dry out inside the coveralls after about 15 minutes, but with the stinger suit, I was still damp after 30.

Alternative options

So I hit the web again.  Was the answer to buy another pair of spray coveralls like the Breathalon pair?  There aren’t too many options around here in Australia.  Elliots did make some out of their Zetel material, but they’ve stopped making those (pity, they had pockets!).  Castle Clothing over in the UK make something that looks ideal.  Alas, I tried emailing them to see if they had an Australian distributor — I’m yet to hear back.

Neither of these options are meant for cycling.  Looking around I saw the BikeSuit.  Clearly Olaf Wit had a similar idea, and actually got his to production.  A few comments:

  • The bikesuit comes in one colour: black.  There are some reflective stripes, so I guess that’s kinda class N (night-time: i.e. reflective) high visibility, but I’d like class D (daytime: i.e. bright colour) too.  In fact, if I had to choose between them, I’ll take class D over class N.
  • The idea of using ventilation to prevent sweat build-up looks like just what the doctor ordered.  That said, wearing this over regular clothes — I sweat in regular clothes without any waterproof gear over the top, surely this will not improve the situation?
  • The suit packs up into a bag about the volume of two soccer balls.
  • Watching the video, it appeared clumbersome to put on.  There are zips everywhere.  The fellow takes it out of its bag at time 0:20.  At 0:50, he’s still adjusting things.  10 seconds later, he’s ready to start cycling.
  • They cost over US$340.  Sure breathable and durable fabric can be expensive, but Ouch!

The class 4 coveralls: I timed myself, and it took me about 50 seconds and I was zipped up.  I had work boots on at the time which I did not remove.  About the only thing BikeSuit has over the dispsable coveralls, is ventilation, durability and built-in shoe covers.  It loses on price, availability and visibility.

Poor man’s “bike suit”?

That got me thinking, could I turn these coveralls into a poor man’s bike suit?  I observed how the back of my coveralls ballooned out, what if I made some ventilation holes?

I tried making 10 small holes just below the line of elastic at the back.  I covered the area over with plastic tape first to give the material some re-enforcing, then punched the holes.  The next day I got to work, not quite sweat free, but certainly much dryer than before.  About on par with my experiment in the Breathalon suit.

I’m thinking if I cut a slit horizontally about 30cm long, then glue (sewing is not good with Tyvek) a triangular patch of mesh fabric maybe 40cm wide and 60cm tall to the inside, that would allow the coveralls to vent.  Fold the material over at the bottom so the bottom of the slit is covered by a layer of material, or use some sheet Tyvek to make a flap, and I think I might be onto a low-cost alternative.  Tier Gear sell sheet Tyvek, so a metre or two of that would suffice for adding the extra flaps needed.

As for day/night high visibility: they exist.  More expensive obviously, but they do exist.

The only real question is one of durability.  Thankfully these things pack up so small and are lightweight enough, I can have a spare pair on the bike for wardrobe malfunction emergencies.  They should be good for WICEN events too: often I’m out on a checkpoint in the wind and rain.  Time will be the ultimate test, we shall see.

2014/07/19 by Public Syndication Thinktank 0

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