Tag Archives: Bike

Will Rolla Replace Zwift?

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Since I got a smart trainer for cycling, I have been using Zwift as my app for training rides.  I have been very happy with the way it works and find it a great tool for training as I can do some pretty long rides on it without getting bored.  I have done up to two hours which would have been inconceivable on older trainers.  I did see a video recently of a new software tool that could provide similar functionality called Rolla.  It is free for the time being, so I decided to try it out.  Will it be a suitable replacement for Zwift?

One of the things I did like the look of was the graphics output.  Zwift has a slightly cartoonish styling which doesn’t bother me at all – indeed, I quite like the odd things that they throw in like a bear falling out of a tree or a stag by the road – but having more realistic scenery was of interest.  Rolla looked like it would be more like riding in real locations.  As a new app, I knew it wouldn’t have extensive scenery databases yet, but they could be useful to try out.Having used it a few times, now, I have come across a bunch of things I didn’t like.  First, the software doesn’t pick up my cadence from the trainer.  I can come across the top of a climb and start speeding down the other side but my cadence on the trainer doesn’t change.  It isn’t reading the cadence either so the data on screen and my data download has nothing of use.  This is not helpful for training my cadence nor for having a realistic riding experience.  I also had issues uploading to Strava.  It now works but there is no way to get it to recognize rides already completed.  The gradient is not connected so my trainer does not respond to changes in slope like it does on Zwift.  That physical feedback of gradient change is very helpful, particularly as slope changes are not very visually obvious.  The rider symbol looks weird too with an odd rolling motion of the hips.  It’s not as bad as the runners I pass, though.  They look like the T1000 from Terminator!  Lastly, sometimes it just seems to have you riding off the side of the road for no obvious reason.All of this is to say it is a long way from being a replacement for Zwift.  It is not going to be something I use for training for now but, with some time to develop it and implement new functionality (plus clean up some of the buggier elements) might make that change.  I would also prefer to just use it on the iPad rather than having to have the phone app open along with the iPad to control things.  We shall see.  In the meantime, Zwift will remain my go to.

 

Friday Night at the Velodrome

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I persuaded Nancy that a fun Friday evening could be had in Marymoor Park if we went to watch some track cycle racing.  Not sure how I managed that, but the food trucks and beer garden might have swung it for me.  Jerry Baker Memorial Velodrome is located in the park and is the last velodrome available in the Pacific Northwest of the US.  It attracts lots of riders as a result.  It is ages since I last went to a velodrome to watch racing, so I was looking forward to it.  The Nationals were on in California, so some of the regular racers were away but there were still plenty of competitors out.

I shall share some examples of the wider view of the arena, the competitors and the spectators for now.  Some more racing specific shots will come in a separate post.  It was a great evening with lovely weather (and great food and beer), and I think we both enjoyed it.  The racing was well structured to keep it entertaining, and they even had races for the kids.  The star of that show was a kid with a big wheel!  It was all I could do not to reference respecting my “authoritie”.

Cross Kirkland Connector’s New Bridge

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The disused railway lines along the eastern side of Lake Washington are progressively becoming trails for the local community.  One section of track that runs through the middle of Kirkland is know as the Cross Kirkland Connector.  This will run up towards Woodinville in due course.  The northern end of the trail for a long time was Totem Lake when the trail came to 124th St.  This is a busy road and crossing it was not a simple process.  As part of the development of the trails, a bridge has been under construction for a while now and it recently was opened to the public.

This bridge is a short distance from my office, and it would provide a useful potential connection if I was to start cycling to work again.  I walked down to the bridge one lunchtime to see how it looked.  The styling of the structure over the road is quite flowing and I had driven underneath at various times in construction, so I was familiar with the general shape.  To get down to the street level, a circular ramp is on the north side, and this loops around near the lake and marshlands.

There are some overlook areas built out from the ramp to encourage people to linger a little.  A few bikes and pedestrians passed over in the short time I was there so I hope there will be a good amount of traffic to justify the investment.  When all of the trails are complete, it will be possible to ride from Renton to the Skagit County line without needing to use the road.

Playing With the Insta360

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I did a little filming on a bike ride with an old GoPro Hero 5 of mine.  The current generation of action cameras has all sorts of clever tech built in which can deal with rotation of the camera and stabilizing the image.  The Hero 5 doesn’t have any of that and I ended up spending a lot of time stabilizing the images in post processing to try and get something usable out of it.  I was surprised how badly it came out and started thinking about an upgrade to incorporate all of the newer capabilities.  It was at this point that I got a little silly.  I had seen videos before about the Insta360 cameras and had found them intriguing but not so much that I wanted to get one.  Now I was looking for a new camera, the capabilities that they have seemed like it could be a good step forward.

For those that haven’t seen one, the Insta360 in its current X3 form has two cameras on opposite sides of the body with fisheye lenses with over 180 degrees of coverage.  The sensors are 5.7K resolution and the camera can stitch the two outputs together to give spherical coverage.  It also has a stick on which you can mount it which the camera will recognize the location of and take both images to effectively remove the stick from the video.  With the high resolution of the original files, you can then use their software – either on your phone or using the desktop app – to pan and zoom around the original files and generate video output of whatever you want.

What this means is that you don’t have to frame a shot when you are shooting.  The only thing you have to do is have the camera in the right place.  You can worry about where it is pointing later on which is great when you are already doing something else.  The removal of the stick is very impressive, only slightly undermined but the fact your hand that is holding it now looks a little odd.  Also, if the shadow of the stick is in shot, the software doesn’t know to do anything about that!  (As an aside, there is a mode where you only shoot with one side like a normal action camera if you want.)

What is the downside to all of this?  Big files!  You are shooting a lot of data on two cameras simultaneously so you can fill up cards fast.  You do also have to then review each clip and pick your angles for the shots, but you would have had to do that beforehand otherwise so no great loss.  Other than that, not a lot to complain about.  I have tried it on a few occasions so far.  The length of the stick makes it seem like you have a drone flying above you if you put it up there.  A cool result.  I took it out on a bike ride to see how things came out and I have a short video below that shows you the result.  No great cinematography here but an introduction to what can be done.  Remember that each shot is only moving the camera around and the panning and zooming is all done back at home.  Amazing tech!

Tour de Lopez

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I get plenty of emails about cycling events taking place in the Pacific Northwest.  Some of them are of interest, some are way too hard for me, and some are not at a time that works for me.  However, the Tour de Lopez ticked all the right boxes.  It was a ride around Lopez Island in the San Juans so I asked various people to see whether they would be interested in taking part.  I got a few positive responses, so I registered.

The ferry times to Lopez are not normally good for an early start but Washington State Ferries had arranged for the 7:30 from Anacortes to make an extra stop at Lopez for the event.  This was good but it did mean an early start from home to get up to Anacortes in time to put the bike together, get a ticket and board.  Unfortunately, in the days prior to the event, everyone progressively bailed on me.  The night before, it was just me.  I decided to go for it anyway.

The weather on the island was forecast to be nice but the temps are significantly lower on the islands at this time of year, so I decided to layer up.  This worked well.  I also decided to take my old GoPro with me to record the day.  I was glad I did.  It was an excellent ride.  The route winds around the island and comes through a variety of bays.  With the sun shining, these bays look so idyllic.  On a normal ride, I might be more focused on keeping moving but on this I was in no hurry so I would stop to make sure I could get some video of the ride.

There were a bunch of rest stops along the route.  Plenty of cyclists were taking part – it was sold out – but it never felt crowded.  You would see people passing by but wouldn’t be in large groups.  The nice thing about the island is that there is not a huge amount of traffic, so it is a great place to ride.  I would occasionally see some familiar faces from earlier in the ride too.  It ended up back at Lopez Village where they had laid on some food.  I bumped into a couple of guys I had seen before, and we had lunch and then rode back towards the ferry.

The ferry ride back was a nice way to end off the day and I was able to pack up my stuff in the car and head home.  The day was so much fun, and I hope the video shows just how good it was.  The guys that had been unable to join clearly liked the video because we ended up setting up a second attempt.  We did this a few weeks later and used a later ferry to start the day so it was a more relaxed affair.

Cross Kirkland Connector

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I was out on the bike doing a short trip to Bellevue to a) get some miles in and b) buy some new cycling gloves.  On the way back, I decided to take a different route and try out the Cross Kirkland Connector.  This is a bike and walking trail across Kirkland that uses an old rail route.  This is part of a network of trails which, when finished will take you from the Skagit county line, through Snohomish, down to Woodinville, on to Kirkland and then via Bellevue to Renton.  It will be a while before it is all open, though.

I have ridden on the connector once when we lived in Juanita.  It isn’t paved so is a little dusty but it is a good surface in the most part.  There is construction underway at one end where a bridge will soon take the trail across a larger road.  It feels remarkably secluded given that it is through some densely populated areas.  One part of the trail has what seems to be a railway halt.  There is a shelter and some old track and signals to show the heritage of what the line once was.  The right of way would be ideal for reintroducing passenger service but I think the objections to that would be strenuous from the trail’s users, even if tracks and trails could coexist.  I doubt it will happen in my lifetime!

Riding Up the Centennial Trail

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I have been doing a lot of riding my bike this year and have been gradually expanding how far I go.  I decided I wanted to do a longer ride but figured I should not combine that with lots of hills in case I overextended myself a touch.  I figured it might be a good time to try out the Centennial Trail.  This is a trail that starts in Snohomish and runs 30 miles up past Marysville and Arlington to the county line with Skagit.

An out and back seemed like it could be fun and it is a converted disused rail line so it wouldn’t have hills.  (That isn’t true of course.  It does have hills but the grades are gentle.  I wondered why I was slow for a while and then found myself zipping along so clearly the grades were noticeable.). I started early one morning which meant I avoided some of the busier traffic that comes later in the day.

It was a fun ride.  Once out of Snohomish, the trail only occasionally crosses any roads so you can trundle along without much interruption.  Since it is an old rail line, there are some old rail bridges to cross occasionally when you get to rivers.  There are mile posts to let you know how you are doing and even areas where horse riders can cross when hoof marks have been set into the surface.  Aside from a brief stretch through Arlington’s more industrial areas, it is a pleasant ride.  A nice park in Arlington itself provides a stop off if you need it and the end of the trail is at a barn seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  A good ride to get 60 miles under your belt!

Herne Hill Good Friday Meet 2003

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Not long before we left the UK, I finally got around to doing something I had meant to do many times and always forgot about until it was too late.  A visit to the Good Friday meet at the velodrome in Herne Hill.  Since it was south London, it was a pretty easy place to get to by train so no need to fight the traffic in to Town.  It was a big deal in those days – maybe it still is – and it attracted a great selection of riders.  Some pros showed up to race or to be seen.  David Millar was there being interviewed but didn’t race.  I was really pleased to see Stuart O’Grady, I rider I really enjoyed watching race.

The track scene had a selection of established stars and up and comers that I new about vaguely from reading Cycling Weekly.  Chris Newton was a big deal in those days although he never became a widely known cyclist.  However, there were two young guys competing that day that I knew were pretty good.  I didn’t know they would go on to better things.  One was a chubby young sprinter called Chris Hoy.  The other was a good pursuiter called Bradley Wiggins.  Olympic and Tour de France glory awaited them later in their careers.  I was very tempted by one of the t-shirts on sale that day.  It said “I’m not fat, I’m a sprinter!”.  If you’ve ever seen the physique of some of the fastest sprinters, you would find this funny.

Closing the Viaduct and Opening the Tunnel

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For decades, the dominant feature of the Seattle waterfront has been the Alaskan Way Viaduct.  This carried Route 99 from the south side of the city along the waterfront before diving into the Battery Street Tunnel and then popping above ground to continue to the north.  It was a double deck viaduct with the northbound traffic on top and the southbound traffic on the lower level.  The viaduct suffered damage in the Nisqually Earthquake and further investigation showed just how vulnerable it was so the replacement process commenced.

The replacement is a tunnel.  Building the tunnel under the city was not an easy task.  A tunnel boring machine named Big Bertha was brought in to cut the tunnel.  Unfortunately, at some point it struck a hard object which damaged the main bearing for the cutting head.  A hole had to be dug and the machine extracted, repaired and reinserted.  This added years to the project but finally, in January 2019, the viaduct was closed.  A three-week period was set aside between closure of the viaduct and opening of the tunnel to allow reconfiguration of the approaches at each end.

On the weekend before the tunnel opened for traffic, WSDOT held celebrations.  A fun run took place on the Saturday and the Sunday included a bike ride.  This included riding both directions through the new tunnel as well as both directions on the old viaduct.  I signed up to take part.  Tons of cyclists also took the opportunity and the event was sold out well in advance.  The number of people mean things were pretty crowded and it could be congested at times.  The long descent in the opening tunnel section could have been quite fast but it wasn’t possible to speed along given how many people there were.

The new tunnel sections were nice and well let.  We actually rode quite a distance south after popping out near the Coast Guard base in the harbor and the wind was in our faces but that meant the run back was a lot easier.  The second part of the tunnel had to be a climb given the descent we had made originally but it wasn’t too bad.  Then we turned and were directed on to the streets to enter the Battery Street Tunnel.

This was a far more dismal experience.  It is a dark and dirty tunnel and I was pleased to get through it quickly.  We actually went through it the wrong way and we went south on the northbound part of the viaduct before diverting off and coming back on the lower level.  One last run through the dirty tunnel and we had completed the ride.  As I exited, plenty of riders were just starting.  It would have been possible to do it all again but I was happy to have done it and decided it was time to go home.  Later that day a serious (for Seattle) snow storm swept in so we had been lucky to get the ride done without any disruption.