Cycling

I considered going for yet another hike yesterday. I didn’t, for two reasons. The first reason is that I had to commit on Wednesday night and I wasn’t ready to commit on Wednesday for Saturday. The second reason is that the group has a black list for people that don’t turn up with a valid reason. I much prefer the “If you’re late we won’t wait” school of punctuality.

I decided instead to join a Bike club Switzerland ride. I have been thinking about joining them for a few weeks, but because of hikes, or logistics I didn’t bother. The logistics are ’needing a light for an evening ride’ or having to get Geneva, going for a ride, and then having to get back.

A few days ago someone wrote something about chocolate croissants. I then wrote something about Chocolate easter bunnies. A third person then said “please don’t have conversations, there are hundreds of people reading this exchange”. This is on WhatsApp. WhatsApp is, or at least was, an IM client. For those of a certain age an IM client is a conversation app. It’s the type of app that includes AIM, ICQ, Messenger, Skype and many, many more apps. Its raison d’être is to encourage conversations.

This weekend seems to be quiet, hiking wise. So far I see just one event, organised. Sunday would have been an option, except that it could be stormy in the afternoon. If light rain falls, then that’s fine, but if it is hail then it is better to avoid. I think that’s why we have gone from five hikes in a single weekend, to just one.

Yesterday I studied the logistics for this hike, and I got everything ready. I don’t like that we had to decide by yesterday night, whether we were committing or not. I’d rather commit a night or two before, but especially to have the freedom to drop out if I find another interesting activity.

This year, as I walk and hike with others, and as their activities are shown along my own, in the list of participants, so I begin to follow people I know on Strava, Komoot and other social networks focused on sports. Notice how I didn’t call them social media. The reason for this is simple. We’re sharing GPS tracks that are categorised by sports.

This weekend I saw that one or two people I know seemed to do group activities and I felt left out, because I had not seen them advertised on GoSocial or Meetup.com. Either that or I wasn’t attentive when they showed up.

Yesterday I went on a bike ride with a Xiaomi Smart Band 9 and a Fairphone 4. I wanted to see two things. The first was to see if the GPS track would be accurate for the entire ride, as well as how much battery power would be squandered in the process. I was happy with the result. After a two hour bike ride I had depleted about 20 percent of the battery since I unplugged that phone in the morning.

I saw that there is a hike taking place nearby. I would have really liked to join it but I would have been participant eleven with a limit of ten people. I wanted to participate because it would have required walking to Nyon, and taking the train de St Cergue to St Cergue and then walking for a few hours, before taking the train back down and walking home. Both my carbon footprint and my travel time would have been small and the environment would have benefited.

Today I filled in a survey with the premise “Impact of automated vehicles on walking” and it gave me an opportunity to share my views on this topic. The short version is that I’d rather see more bike sharing opportunities, and more safe routes for pedestrians between villages and towns, than self driving cars.

The reason for this is simple. It takes a few seconds to unlock a publibike, six minutes to get to Nyon Station, and then catch a train. In contrast, taking a car would require me to become part of traffic, even if the car is self driving. If I take a bike both ways, then I have very little carbon footprint compared to if I get in a car. A car is 1.4 tons, or more, that has to move around 60kg.A bike is 10 kg to move 60 kg. A good bike has almost 98 percent efficiency.

Yesterday I thought that I would get breakfast for free before the ride but I didn’t. As a result of this I went for a bike ride in a fasted state. I considered having pasta for dinner the night before, even as breakfast but didn’t.

The result is that the energy stores I burned off on the two previous rides were not replenished and I started with an energy deficit. The result of this is that I was looking for a place to stop long enough to take a few energy gels I had with me, to fuel at least partially.

For two days I rode twenty five kilometres, which, by my standards, are quite small rides. Today I rode with a group and for a while I was fine but then, when I climbed from Nyon towards Duillier I began to feel that I was fatigued. I slowed down and I couldn’t keep up with the group, or more accurately, the group had better acceleration and once you’re dropped you have to make more effort.

I like to cycle but I don’t like the idea of having my bike stolen. I loved using a foot scooter but I find that e-scooters are frustrating because we can’t go above a certain speed. For months, or even years, I have been considering using Publibike bikes for shopping and getting to the train station but didn’t because a bike costs 3 CHF for half an hour, and ten centimes per minute to use after that. An e-bike is 5 CHF for the first half hour and then 20 centimes per minute after that. A muscle bike costs 24 CHF per 24 hours, and an electric bike is 48 CHF per hour.