AQI and Riding

[Tricia]

The AQI was crazy bad before we left for Alaska and has been bad since we got back. Because I know somoene who had heart issues after riding bike in a bad AQI last year I'm super cautious about what I do outside during these wildfire issues.
We woke up today with a published AQI of 240.

This article sheds some light.....errrr smoke on the issue.

Data Driven Athlete | The Blog | Air Quality and Cycling: When to Ride, When to Stay Home

When the air quality is poor should you stay home or ride your bike? This post offers some basic guidelines for making the right call on whether or not you should ride outdoors when the air quality is bad.

datadrivenathlete.com

Even tonight the AQI is published at 170.

 

[Rod9301]

I would not ride if over 50

 

[luliski]

I'm not riding outdoors because of injury, and I'm really happy I have an indoor cycling set-up. Zwift is kind of fun, and it will help me when the air quality is bad too!

 

[dovski]

We have been pretty lucky in the Sunriver/Bend area. When we do get the smoke blowing our way it’s only temporary. That said this afternoon was not good and we are planning our trail rides tomorrow around the AQI forecast

Hoping for some nice air through next week as we head home on the 15th

 

[François Pugh]

I'm not riding outdoors because of injury, and I'm really happy I have an indoor cycling set-up. Zwift is kind of fun, and it will help me when the air quality is bad too!

How does being inside as opposed to outside affect your injury?
Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[AmyPJ]

We are trying to make that decision this morning. The trouble I'm having is one AQI sensor reporting site says we're in the orange, one says we're in the green, and one says we're in the yellow. I look outside and say we're in the yellow. I'll ride if it's in the yellow. Of course, that could change during the course of a ride.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I've been trying to ride only when AQI is below 100. At that, I've also limited the lung-busting climbs. I have been getting a lot of work done on my truck shell, though.

 

[Tricia]

We woke up to this.
From the NOAA app.

We are trying to make that decision this morning. The trouble I'm having is one AQI sensor reporting site says we're in the orange, one says we're in the green, and one says we're in the yellow. I look outside and say we're in the yellow. I'll ride if it's in the yellow. Of course, that could change during the course of a ride.

Yellow 89 according to NOAA

 

[luliski]

How does being inside as opposed to outside affect your injury?
Inquiring minds want to know.

Although I've only crashed twice on my road bike, I think there's less risk of falling riding on a trainer indoors. I'm recovering from a broken shoulder (no surgery), so until the bone is more healed I need to avoid falling on it again.

 

[scott43]

Although I've only crashed twice on my road bike, I think there's less risk of falling riding on a trainer indoors. I'm recovering from a broken shoulder (no surgery), so until the bone is more healed I need to avoid falling on it again.

I dunno..my buddy forgot to clamp his rear wheel, tottered over and broke his carbon frame... I mean, it's POSSIBLE...

 

[doc]

Road yesterday in Eagle and Summit Counties, CO and think AQI was in 140-150 range. Visibility was really depressing. Then went down to Denver where AQI was 178. Had a sore throat from it.

 

[luliski]

I dunno..my buddy forgot to clamp his rear wheel, tottered over and broke his carbon frame... I mean, it's POSSIBLE...

You know, I could see that happening. When I first set it up and hadn't actually been on a bike in a couple of months, plus all the fog of pain related sleep deprivation, it could have happened. I'm itching to get out for a ride, but it's useful to have this for now (while I'm healing) and as an option for bad air days.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Road yesterday in Eagle and Summit Counties, CO and think AQI was in 140-150 range. Visibility was really depressing. Then went down to Denver where AQI was 178. Had a sore throat from it.

I worked in my garage building truck shell doors. Not so much heavy breathing. I've found that my lungs are more critical than my legs so I'm being cautious.

 

[skibob]

As somebody who lives in the smoke belt . . . I won't ride above 50. If you live in an area prone to smoke, I recommend something like this:


When our house was blocks from the Tubbs fire in 2017 we had to have lots of smoke restoration work. They left behind two filters like this. If you can smell smoke, you want these things in your house. We came home from a weekend away to AQI of 350 last year. 20 min after snapping it on the air in our house was pristine.

They aren't cheap. But the little "hepa filters" at Costco aren't good for anything larger than a bedroom. We keep one of these at home (2700 sf) and one at the office (1800sf) and only suffer on the drive home when air is bad.

 

[Ken_R]

The AQI was crazy bad before we left for Alaska and has been bad since we got back. Because I know somoene who had heart issues after riding bike in a bad AQI last year I'm super cautious about what I do outside during these wildfire issues.
We woke up today with a published AQI of 240.

This article sheds some light.....errrr smoke on the issue.

Data Driven Athlete | The Blog | Air Quality and Cycling: When to Ride, When to Stay Home

When the air quality is poor should you stay home or ride your bike? This post offers some basic guidelines for making the right call on whether or not you should ride outdoors when the air quality is bad.

datadrivenathlete.com

View attachment 139399

Even tonight the AQI is published at 170.

Below 100 its ok to ride for me. Above that and below 150 I limit to easy 45min ride but rather not ride. Above 150 its crazy to ride.

 

[scott43]

Not that I'm advocating riding in poor air quality but his much worse is it than living beside a freeway? Legit question.

 

[Tricia]

Not that I'm advocating riding in poor air quality but his much worse is it than living beside a freeway? Legit question.

I'm not sure what the answer is to that, but I know that I don't often ride near a freeway and the smoke from fires is leaving actual ash on items left outside.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I rode today at 125. I wasn't going to this morning when it was 160, but my weekend neighbor was up and I saw he was going out and I had just finished a major bit of work, so I treated myself to a spin. We had lots of breathing stops to compensate for the poor air.

 

[cantunamunch]

Not that I'm advocating riding in poor air quality but his much worse is it than living beside a freeway? Legit question.

My answer is: this is much worse for overall air quality. And you can see that for yourself by popping onto iqair.com and looking for major freeways.
For example, here is Houston. Notice that the overall AQI is not even 10% of what some western states are seeing. Even smack dab next to a freeway it's less than 30% of what was posted above.

Live Animated Air Quality Map (AQI, PM2.5...) | IQAir

Discover AirVisual Map, live world air pollution and air quality index (AQI) interactive 2D animated map combining PM2.5 data from public government, air quality stations, our community.

www.iqair.com

Yes, freeways do source ground-level ozone, NOx and sulfides which don't travel very far; there might be a few local peaks on 2-3 reactive chemicals. Overall? . You'd have to go back to the '70s to find this level of pollution sourced by freeways.


Here is NYC down to NJ - the only place that is seriously western-states-level unrideable is Brooklyn and Queens - but we kind of expected that.

 

[Doug Briggs]

AQI doesn't take into account the potential toxicity of the particles. Just the size and quantity. Or am I missing something?