MinnMan

Well, I was on a small group ride today, and I did flinch when I felt a drop of sweat on my face that I was pretty sure had come from the rider in front of me. Sweat doesn't itself carry the virus, unless it's coming from a skin surface (e.g., the face) that does....

The level of risk may be hard to gauge.

canklecat

Yup, health care work can be grueling. I pulled lots of double shifts in my 20s, sometimes out of necessity, other times just to make extra money. It's still stress even when we aren't coerced and enjoy the work.

When we're young and fit everything seems to come naturally, more easily, and we tend to rebound quickly. So it's easy to tell ourselves "Hey, I can do one more hour... one more shift... skip that day off..." But it's cumulative stress.

I don't take those chances anymore. If I feel a nap attack I don't fight it off anymore. Besides, as soon as I lie down my cats pile on to weigh me down so I can't get up anyway.

bruce19

What I have read is that the alcohol base has to be 70%. I can't find alcohol at all around here.

bruce19

As for my clubs' group rides....I won't be doing our typical B ride. Those groups are typically 12-20 riders. Although we have taken to splitting the group once it gets around 12. I'm fine with riding alone or with a very few others. I started doing that last year because the average recreational rider has no idea what bike handling and safe group riding are about.

Seattle Forrest

710 feet elevation gain and loss over 5.26 miles today, on skis. There were a handful of people on the trails, but not many, and nobody was close to anybody else for more than the second or two it takes to pass. I passed with more room than normal, far end of the skate lane.

The outdoors is general safe from C19, just maintain 6 feet of personal space.

downhillmaster

No changes yet where I am.
Group rides with shared water bottles and lots of high 5’s 👍

Robert A

I'll ride with others, but at a greater distance. It's not only about staying healthy. It's also about not becoming a carrier.

kingston 

Assume you're already a carrier. It's about you infecting other people.

Robert A

True, which is why we ride without drafting. But if we want to go to the extreme, we probably aren't safe driving our cars in traffic either.

Seattle Forrest

C19 has a slightly higher chance of killing a person than traffic, believe it or not.

What else do you do with a 1% chance of dying from it? If driving in traffic was comparable, we'd all die 3 times per year.

I'm taking a small risk, so I should take big ones too, that doesn't make sense.

rm -rf

I'm retired, and plan to stay at home, away from people. Hospitals are going to be over full soon.

Is there a risk in driving a car in traffic? Could be, just from air pulled into the car? I've not heard any warnings on this, so far.

I think bike riding on country roads in low traffic is reasonably safe. There's very little airborne virus particles out there.

So far, I still plan to ride, but will likely back off the pace so I don't need to draft to keep up. Riding in pairs, side by side, would limit exposure to / from the other rider. I ride with a few riders that don't ever ride solo.
The riders I go with aren't good at splitting into groups, though. They tend to chase any riders gapped off the front of the group, and can't easily stick to small groups where the traffic is busy and we are trying to leave gaps for cars to use. I'll have to think about this some more.

No restaurant stops after the ride, and even no store stops during the ride. Slower and shorter small group rides for now. Mix with hard solo rides.

wphamilton

5-8% bleach concentration works for disinfectant. Leave it on a surface for 1-2 minutes & I advise wear gloves at that concentration and try not to breathe too much of the fumes.

If you can't find any hand disinfectant, simply vigorous soap and water is also effective. Less than a disinfectant but still effective.

You can also find denatured alcohol if the stores are out of rubbing alcohol. Fortunately, good whiskey or bourbon isn't high enough proof so there's no need to waste it.

mrblue

Being around other people for longer than 15 minutes typically exacerbates my misanthropy. So COVID-19 is one more excellent weapon in my otherwise dwindling arsenal of excuses not to go on group rides.

merlinextraligh

Everclear. Ethanol, drinking alcohol works
but the total alcohol level has to be 60 or above. So Vodka at your liquor store won’t work. Grain alcohol, like Everclear, which is much higher proof, can.

and if you have extra, you can make purple Jesus.

wphamilton

If you really want to use your vodka for disinfectant I suppose you could try freezing it and pouring the alcohol into a container. Since water freezes at a higher temperature. I haven't tried that but I think it would work.

merlinextraligh

a tangential issue is how hard do you want to ride. Moderate exercise is good for your health.

very hard exercise, particularly beyond your current fitness level can suppress your immune system.

calorie restriction, added to high training stress, makes matter worse.

Personally, getting ready for a race in France in August, where I need to be way more fit and way lighter, I’m kinda in a box

MinnMan

and this....

"USA Cycling is recommending cancellation of all sanctioned events immediately and calling on all race and event directors, clubs, coaches, athletes, and members to postpone or cancel all scheduled races and events immediately. This includes any gatherings such as group rides, in-person group meetings, etc."

https://www.usacycling.org/article/u...nt-on-covid-19

Doge

So many don't understand this. Peaking is not that good for much more than going faster on the bike.
I just txted junior this AM to back off, although he is so isolated, I doubt he could find the bug if he wanted to.

AdkMtnMonster

Do NOT use denatured alcohol to make homebrewed hand sanitizer. The things that denature alcohol are NOT good things to absorb through your skin. Please be careful, verify your ingredients and sources of information, and stay happy and healthy! Remember, hand sanitizers are only a temporary stop-gap measure to keep the number of pathogens lowered until you can properly wash your hands. Using them is much better than doing nothing, but they are not 100% effective at killing every organism out there. You could be safe from lots of things by using hand sanitizer, but still be exposed to some GI pathogens and other viruses.

woodcraft

Are you comparing the risk of dying if you already have the virus to the risk of dying from each car trip or what?

It looks to me like if you are in a car crash, there's about .6% chance of dying from that crash, so in that sense, you're right.

People in the US die from car wrecks at a rate of about 100/day, so close to 5,000 so far this year.

The auto pandemic.

datlas 

I have a Wednesday group ride that typically has 10-20 riders.

This week, I plan to run it like a TTT. Groups of 3 or 4 riders will set out at 1 minute intervals. That seems to be a reasonable compromise.

wphamilton

Also don't use the cosmetics and skin care products which list denatured alcohol in the ingredients.

But if you want to use it for cleaning (which is what it's for), or even for handwashing within reason, you'll be fine.

AdkMtnMonster

Enjoy.

Seattle Forrest

Somebody told us if you're concerned about coronavirus, you better not drive a car either, because that can be dangerous too. And I'm saying don't be daft. The act of driving a car isn't comparable to having C-19. Being in an accident or a high speed chase with police are more dangerous than just driving, but also much rarer. But the claim I'm responding to isn't about being in an accident, it's about driving at all.

As far as 100 people dying per day out of 325 million: Italy reports 368 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours. Iran announced more than 100 people have died in the past 24 hours

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...054153018.html

​​​​​​I'm not saying car accidents are great, I'm saying driving isn't anywhere near as dangerous as being infected with a deadly virus.

woodcraft

In your previous post, you seemed to suggest that they were of similar danger- "C19 has a slightly higher chance of killing a person than traffic"