Just a couple pictures on the ride in today... the first showing the "health" of the housing market. People will buy anything. The second two, however, are a segue to a tool any serious commuter should have at their disposal:

The Draft.

The second picture is an example of a bad draft.
The third picture is an example of a good draft.

Vehicles that are good to draft behind:

Medium to large box trucks
Old ladies in minivans
Some school busses
Dump trucks (smaller semis)
1970s dodge vans with no power

Vehicles that are bad to draft behind:

City busses
Rednecks
Any big diesel with a huge tail pipe pointing right at you
tractors


Basically, you have to balance the vehicles top speed and its ability to accellerate... Never draft when it is raining, though. Even with disk brakes, the costant mist of water will making stopping very sketchy. If you catch a good draft, however, you can easily cruise at 40 mph while just barely touching the pedals (you will often feel a strong tailwind).
By being able to hook up a few good drafts on my ride in, i've been able to cut 10 minutes off my 45 minute commute. It's also fun to go that fast that easily :-)

Just a tip for the day...

: -D

LOL at the bad draft!

Reminds me of a sction of technical trial we have here called the cheese grater (has that effect on your body if you go down)

Bet you that house will be gone about a week after the new owner takes possession. It's all about the land in Vancouver. Lots of developers buying up peices of property with no intention whatsoever of using the house. Just tear it down, and build up some palatial house without a square inch of grass.

My wife's grandparents lived in Dunbar. Bought a house there in the 20's for about $3000. Sold it for $1,000,000. Buyers never stepped inside the house, it was gone within a month and replaced by a huge mansion.

Housing market in Vancouver is insane. We could never afford to buy there (other than a dump or some tiny condo), so we moved :)

And, to keep it bike related, nice drafting photos. Where the heck were you riding to be behind a tractor? Not a lot of those on Commercial Dr!

And, to keep it bike related, nice drafting photos. Where the heck were you riding to be behind a tractor? Not a lot of those on Commercial Dr!

You'd be surprised... not too far from Commercial ;-). It was about halfway down Victoria (the dumpy house was close to where Victoria and Commercial merge). Just in the middle of town, but surprisingly not surprising...

And i wasn't voluntarily riding behind it - the bastard cut me off! Albeit very slowly ;-)

: -D

Bet you ............yadda, yadda, yada....................

And, to keep it bike related, nice drafting photos. Where the heck were you riding to be behind a tractor? Not a lot of those on Commercial Dr!

That's a mower attatchment. Probably works for the parks department.

Nice drafting shots Damon! I would have thought you would get more slipstream from the rotary mower than the truck... Did you manage to catch up the driver and give them a piece of your mind?
Cheers, Wayne

Nice drafting shots Damon! I would have thought you would get more slipstream from the rotary mower than the truck... Did you manage to catch up the driver and give them a piece of your mind?
Cheers, Wayne

Naw - it really wasn't that big of a deal. That, and i try to stay away from people who have many whirling blades of death at their disposal. And for the slipstream? The truck is absolutely better than the tractor - the mower attachment doesn't really block all that much air, ya know?

: -D

Naw - it really wasn't that big of a deal. That, and i try to stay away from people who have many whirling blades of death at their disposal. And for the slipstream? The truck is absolutely better than the tractor - the mower attachment doesn't really block all that much air, ya know?

: -D


How's the weather in Van been these last few weeks? Good riding or just plain wet and miserable?
Wayne

That's Vancouver, BC in CANADA ! ! !

There's a Vancouver in Washington state, USA you know. It's right over the bridge from Portland, OR. And so some confusion about "Vancouver." Just like the confusion about "Washington" -- some reporters on the big networks refer to "D.C" as "Washington" which gets it confused with Washington state.

But I digress . . .

That house is beyond being a "fixer upper." (It's a fixer downer.) *G* There's no way that location would be viable for much besides tearing the house down and putting in a storage garage.

"Tractor" -- I'm just curious. My John Deere, in high gear range and full bore throttle does 9 mph. Of course it will pull stuff out of the Hubs of Hell in that gear if it can get traction. So what were you doing behind a tractor? They can't be fast enough to ride behind.

Personally, I'd rather ride behind a street washer hosing off the pavement and shooting water under my wheels than ride behind a school bus. School buses in the USA are just huge road blockage hazards. They stop every 100 feet to drop off ruffians too fat to walk a block from the bus-stop. And they're always stopping and expecting that the bike is going to wait behind them while the "red lights are flashing."

It's unlawful to pass a school bus while "red lights are flashing" -- in a motor vehicle. But a bike is not a "motor vehicle" and it's legal to pass a stopped bus. The driver will honk, signal, scream out the window, make hand motions. I just make hand motions back. I motion that the driver needs to bite my saddle sitter. I'm not stopping my ride for a school-bus. :D :D :D

That's Vancouver, BC in CANADA ! ! !

It's unlawful to pass a school bus while "red lights are flashing" -- in a motor vehicle. But a bike is not a "motor vehicle" and it's legal to pass a stopped bus. The driver will honk, signal, scream out the window, make hand motions. I just make hand motions back. I motion that the driver needs to bite my saddle sitter. I'm not stopping my ride for a school-bus.

Canada is a bit different than the states in this respect - there are no public school busses (only private ones, and those are pretty rare). Kids take public transit to get to school, which seems an excellent setup, in my mind. Public busses are very different than your average big yellow school bus - drivers of the former are freakin accellerator nuts! I can't keep up with them. Even the electric trolleys.

And yes, i am in Canada, not southern washington state.

The weather? Awesome. It has been a sheer delight to ride into work, and on the shore and up in squamish/whistler area... The worst has been a light mist that hasn't forced me to cover up the shorts and t-shirt i've been braving to work.

Hardy - you need to work on those shool bus anger management issues you seem to be harboring. Or at least stop offering your saddle for someone's next meal...

: -D