SpokEasy

December 2018

We\’ve Got It Easy!

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We\’ve got it easy. Yes, really! We all know what a pain it is just to get ready for the weekly long ride. There are jumbled heaps of stuff everywhere, like a pile of Scrabble tiles; and we have to prep our ride food. What, then, is it like to get ready for a bicycle tour of several weeks? What do I need to take? How much can I take? Can I be ready for whatever weather I\’m likely to encounter? Unless I\’m very lucky, it\’s unlikely that I won\’t get rained on at least once; and I need to be prepared for layering. If I didn\’t have whatever clothing and equipment I needed for such a tour, I\’d have to borrow or buy them. That means visiting stores; and browsing web sites and catalogs.  What a nuisance that is; not to mention that it\’s expensive! But we\’re lucky to have such resources nowadays. I have to remind myself to be glad that I\’m not Thor Heyerdahl, getting ready for his Kon-Tiki expedition. In his book about the raft trip, Heyerdahl describes the difficulties in obtaining the balsa logs needed; and finding a secure place to build the raft. He tells how, come sailing day, there were heaps of supplies on the raft that still needed to be stowed away. Once at sea, he and his five companions had a very difficult time steering the raft. In 1947, nobody was around who could tell them how to do it. Kon-Tiki is worth reading, even if you\’re going on a bicycle trip; and not a trans-Pacific journey by raft. If nothing else, we\’ll see that we\’ve got it easy!

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Tis the Season

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Tis the season! Yes, Christmas is coming. Many folks have already finished decorating; but I haven\’t even started. There\’s no room in my abode for a Christmas tree, unless I put my bicycles outside [oh, horrors]! I couldn\’t enjoy a tree if I had one, because it\’s too cold in that room to stay in there for long. When I was a kid, we always had a real tree; and didn\’t put it up until after supper on December 23. We put the angel on top; and strung on the lights. After breakfast on Christmas Eve, we finished trimming the tree. That way, our tree was something new on Christmas Day; and, to my mind, was really a Christmas Tree. On January 6, we took the Tree down; and Santa Claus had always forgotten some kind of goodies under the \”skirt\”. That was fun! So, with all that said, what can anybody get for the special cyclist in his or her life? There are plenty of things out there. And what would I want? Oh, where shall I begin? I would love some thermal cycling socks.  My heaviest gloves are several years old and showing signs of wear. I could go on and on! Tis the season when you start wishing for additions to your cycling wardrobe; and ones that you didn\’t have to pay for!    

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Seeing Eye

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Ever hear of a seeing eye cyclist? Some lucky folks have \”eagle eyes\”; but others, alas, have serious visual impairments. Does that mean that they must miss out on the pleasure of cycling? Not at all. There are programs that can pair a sighted cyclist with one who can\’t see well enough to ride independently; and get them on a tandem. For the person with the visual impairment, I guess it\’s a little like working with a seeing eye dog; only the guide is another person. And it\’s on wheels. I once read a quote by Helen Keller, in which she indicated that she enjoyed riding on a tandem bicycle. I expect it would take a while for someone who can\’t see to get used to such riding; even with a sighted person just ahead taking care of steering; looking out for obstacles; and so on. I suppose that both riders would need plenty of patience and practice. I know I would. I\’m glad to know that the visually impaired can have a way to enjoy riding a bicycle. For those interested, I hope you can find such a program in your area; and then, may you find your wings!

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Get Cooking!

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With Christmas approaching only too fast, it\’s time to get cooking; and I\’m thinking about goodies. What kind of goodies? Chocolates? Or cookies; or muffins? If you\’re looking for something new to serve for breakfast, check out The Complete Tightwad Gazette, on page 466: \”Create a Breakfast Muffin\”. I enjoyed experimenting with the recipe. I made quadruple batches, using a large pot as a mixing bowl; and I\’d bake the batter in two lasagna pans. Because I wasn\’t baking the muffin batter in muffin pans, I called these \”unmuffins\”. I would cut the baked \”cakes\” and let them finish cooling before freezing them. I could really get cooking! As I went along, I wrote down my inventions. Here\’s the Buckwheat-Buttermilk version (a double batch): Preheat oven to 400 degrees (Fahrenheit) 2 cups whole wheat flour                   2 cups buckwheat flour              2-2/3 tsp cream of tartar + 1-1/3 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt (optional)  1 cup sugar 2 \”soy eggs\” (or regular eggs)* 1/2 cup instant non-fat milk powder  + water to make 2 cups (or regular milk, if you desire) 2 Tbsp white vinegar 2 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 canola oil (use another oil, if desired) Add vinegar to milk; and let sit about 10 minutes, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. In a large bowl, combine flours, cream of tartar, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Add milk, eggs, vanilla, and oil. Stir quickly to moisten all dry ingredients. If batter seems too thick, quickly add about 1/4 cup of water. Pour into greased and lightly floured pans, and bake 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!*A soy egg is 1 heaping Tbsp of soy flour and 1 Tbsp of water, well mixed.        

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Don\’t Horse Around

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Don\’t horse around, when horses are around! Any bicycle rider who uses off-road paths is apt to be sharing the space with, not only other cyclists; but with runners; walkers; and — equestrians. I don\’t often encounter equestrians while out on my bicycle, but now and then there are a few; and it\’s important to be very careful around horses. If I know only one thing about those animals, it\’s that they spook easily. I, for one, would not want to be responsible for scaring one and having the rider get thrown. That\’s one of the reasons I have a bell on each of my bicycles. If I see a horseback rider ahead, I can ring the bell and call out, \”Bicycle!\” well before I get too close. The rider can move aside, or even stop and turn the horse so that I won\’t be coming up behind it. Anything moving behind a horse scares the animal big time, which is why cart horses wear blinders behind their eyes. Then I slow down until I\’m well away from horse and rider. Sure, taking those precautions means I lose a little time; but it doesn\’t hurt to be careful. I could lose a lot more time if I don\’t give warning, and the horse panics. That\’s why I say, Don\’t horse around.

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Planning Ahead

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It\’s time for planning ahead! Now that we\’re into the final month of 2018, maybe it\’s not too early to start thinking about those New Year\’s resolutions. A common one: start exercising; or, exercise more. Bicycling, of course, is a great way to get exercise, and to get outdoors; to see new things; and to firm up those muscles. Not to mention burning off some calories! Weather, I admit, can be a problem at this time of year. Not everyone who rides bicycles lives where snow; ice; slush; and so on, aren\’t a problem. That brings us to indoor cycling. I don\’t enjoy pedaling with my bicycle hooked into a trainer; but there are days when it seems to be the only way I can let my legs get some action. My CycleOps Fluid 2 is a no-frills indoor \”ride\”. It has an annoying way of making the whole place shake and rattle when I really push the pedals, which I fear is annoying to the neighbors. Of course there are other options. Some of them look very sophisticated to me! If I had the room to set it up, one of these ride simulators might make indoor pedaling less tedious. There are rollers, aka \”a treadmill for a bike\”. I used to have a set; and I never became very comfortable on them. Maybe I\’ll try them again some day. The frame for rollers can be adjusted to the length of a bicycle\’s wheelbase. For example, my road bike\’s wheelbase is three inches shorter than that of my hybrid. I\’m sure there are other ways to \”ride\” indoors if the weather makes riding outdoors impossible, and the New Year\’s resolution is: Get out and Ride! Planning ahead can help you to be all set for it.  

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Give Them a Hand

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Let\’s give them a hand! Give whom a hand? Prithee allow me to explain. The mention of cycling is likely to conjure up images of pedalers with well-developed leg muscles. And of long rides; and of Grand Tour races. Cycling, however, is not restricted to the able-bodied; thanks to hand-powered bikes. Several times I\’ve seen a man around here riding a hand-powered adult tricycle. He had a model that was very low to the ground. I don\’t remember for sure whether it was delta style (two wheels in the back; one in front); or tadpole style (two wheels up front; one in the back) style; but he sure was moving that thing! Let\’s give a hand to all the hand-powered cyclists out there! A big worry with such a bike would be traffic. Low-slung tricycles and bicycles (such as recumbents) are harder for motorists to see. A warning flag would be a very wise idea, in addition to a reflective vest; and a helmet, of course. If some disaster deprived me of the use of my legs, I\’d want one of those hand-powered trikes. I\’m sure it would take a long time for me to develop enough strength and endurance for even short rides; but I suppose I\’d eventually be able to go farther when I needed to. Maybe even enough to go on long Sunday rides! I know I want to keep up my cycling in whatever way I can, because it\’s hands down one of the greatest pleasures in my life.

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Hot Chocolate Time

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It\’s hot chocolate time! I\’ve found a brand at the salvage store called Abuelita®; that is, \”Granny\’s\”. It\’s in solid discs, rather than powder or granules. One disc makes four cups of the beverage; but you don\’t have to drink it! I\’ve discovered that the solid discs make nice munching. I would figure out that! The discs are scored so that they\’re easier to break, if I don\’t want the whole thing at once. I wish I could make today hot chocolate time. It\’s gray; raining and damp; and (for me, anyway) chilly. Unfortunately, with stitches still in place from oral surgery four days ago, I might be wise to avoid hot drinks. If you want hot chocolate without spending a lot for the mixes, you can make your own! There\’s a recipe for it on page 81 of  The Complete Tightwad Gazette. I adapted it to this: 2 cups instant non-fat milk powder + 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar + 1/4 cup Hershey\’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder®. Put all ingredients in a quart jar, cover tightly, and shake well. That\’s all there is to it! Use 1/4 cup of the mix to 1 cup hot water.  So mix up that cup of hot chocolate; pull on some cozy socks; settle down in front of the heater; and enjoy!  

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A New Lease on Life?

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Do you want to give an old bicycle a new lease on life? Perhaps, for whatever reason, you don\’t ride any more. Maybe you upgraded and bought a fancier bike, and haven\’t been riding the \”back number\”. Yet you can\’t stomach the idea of throwing the bicycle away. After all, it still has plenty of miles left in it. In my home town of New Orleans, there is Plan B. Bicycle Plan B, that is. I would think that similar programs exist in many other cities as well. You could call it a recycling program for bikes! A program such as Plan B can let your now-unused bicycle get to someone who wants and needs it, but can\’t afford to buy a new bicycle from a regular bike shop. When I decided that the time had come to let my tricycle go, I took it to Plan B. The timing turned out to be most fortuitous. When I took the trike there, it happened to be just when a man came in who had been checking with Plan B for a while, hoping to get an adult tricycle. His had been stolen, and he wanted another one. I was glad to let \”Valkyrie\” go to him; he needed the trike. I hadn\’t used it for much except getting groceries since getting moving on two wheels. I did warn him that my bike shop had said that the tricycle was \”on its last legs\”. He couldn\’t afford to pay nearly as much as the value that Plan B had put on the trike, but I didn\’t mind. I wasn\’t trying to make a killing. Also, I didn\’t want him to pay a lot for the trike only to have it break down beyond repair in a week or two. And for all I know, good old Valkyrie is out there still, enjoying new lease on life!    

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Euclid Never Imagined This

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Euclid never imagined this, I\’ll bet. Way back in B.C., when Euclid was developing the principles of geometry, bicycles were undreamed of. Yet now we speak of frame geometry. Choose your figure! Do you want a right triangle; or a parallelogram? Perhaps a trapezoid; or a pentagon? How about a circle?? All kidding aside, frame geometry is an important aspect of choosing a bicycle. If you want a bicycle to ride just for fun and exercise, it would be wise to avoid a racing bicycle with \”aggressive\” geometry. Such bicycles are apt to be too \”twitchy\” for the recreational rider. My own road bike is of the \”endurance\” variety. Gosh — Euclid never imagined this! If he had, bicycles might have been invented in his own day! Any road bike feels twitchy for the rider new to road bikes. At any rate, mine sure did; and it took me several weeks to adjust to it. At first I did morning rides on the hybrid as usual; and I set aside some time in the evenings to work at getting used to the road bike. It was rather frustrating to feel that I was back at square one. But taking it slow and easy while staying uninjured, and building confidence; is far better than trying to go too fast, too soon; and ending up in a cast. And don\’t let your frame geometry run afoul of a hypotenuse — hey, wait, that\’s Pythagoras!

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