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bicycling

Rack My Brains

BACK ISSUES, bicycling, equipment /

Rack My Brains? I don’t have to rack my brains to figure out how useful this product is! Often I need to carry more on my hybrid than I can put into a backpack; so I need some other way to carry my stuff. This rack can carry a pair of panniers; plus a bicycle trunk. Bring home a week’s worth of groceries in a single trip! This rack would be useful if I went touring, and didn’t have a touring bicycle. Maybe not for a prolonged, self-supported tour; but for a short trip I think it should do. It certainly helps me to get my stuff to work with me. But not tomorrow. Tomorrow is a holiday; and I’m glad of it. MAYBE I can sleep late! And put in some miles on the road bike. I’m trying to do a little extra because I want to get in the miles; and for the time being I can’t ride to work. Last week, my hybrid got destroyed; and I suspect that somebody deliberately trashed it. I can’t go into details here; but I hope the culprit is caught. Today I went out on the road bike. The restrooms at my pit-stop place are still locked! This is the third Sunday in a row! I’m tired of having to come home to “use the facilities”; and once I was home, it was hard to get out there again. It sprinkled on and off; and that kept me a little bit cooler. But it’s grass-seed season; and I got home with grass seeds stuck in my sunblock. Today I used some baby sunblock that I found; and to me it seemed too stiff; too sticky; and it was hard to wash off. The reason I bought it is, it’s fragrance free. I just checked the forecast. There’s a 40% chance of T-storms tomorrow morning. To ride; or not to ride? That’s a question to rack my brains!

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It Doesn’t Feel Right

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It Doesn’t Feel Right It doesn’t feel right that I couldn’t ride to the salvage store today. With my poor hybrid a wreck, I didn’t have my usual transportation. Public transit would have taken much longer than riding to the salvage story by bicycle; and there’s no transit stop right outside the store. How can I bring home a decent load like that? There’s a small grocery store not quite a mile from here; but just try to carry bananas all that way without bruising them half to death! It’s very frustrating, because I wanted to get some cooking done. I keep catching myself thinking of riding over to that store with a pannier; then I remember that I don’t have the bike! No; it doesn’t feel right at all. I went for a ride with the road bike; then walked over to the bike shop. I test-rode a hybrid; and it’s very nice. Of course it’s stripped down; and I’ll have to buy fenders and a luggage rack. Fenders are a must in a wet climate, especially if you plan to ride to work. Who wants to arrive at the office with a dirty, wet stripe down their back; and wet back hair besides? Let’s hope the bags I have are compatible with the new rack; or I’ll have to buy new ones. The bicycle I plan to buy costs nearly $700; and that’s not pocket change! But I’m afraid I’ll need new panniers before too long, anyhow. The old ones are showing definite signs of wear. Too many heavy loads from the salvage store, maybe. I hope the weather is cooperative tomorrow. There’s  50% chance of rain and/or T-storms; and I don’t want to get caught in bad weather when I’m 20 miles from home! I guess I’ll have to take my chances. Cycle September is on; so I want to get in my miles!

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Labor Day

bicycling, Uncategorized /

Labor Day It’ll be Labor Day, all right. Here I go re-working my web site.  AGAIN. I hadn’t realized that a Slider is part of a page! With help from a service called WordPress Live (expensive, but well worth it!), I got my home page redone; but I’m not sure how to take it from there. One thing I’m sure of: I don’t want to clutter up that home page image with lots of buttons! That won’t be attractive; and might even turn away prospective visitors. I’m glad I have a three-day weekend to mull things over! I hope to get in some good riding; but the weather forecast isn’t the most favorable. Some extra miles on the road bike will be welcome, though, because my hybrid is out of commission. Day before yesterday, it got vandalized! The bike shop says it might be a total loss; so I hope to get there tomorrow to test-ride a few new ones. But they don’t allow test-rides when it’s wet. I can’t go to the salvage store now, so maybe I can get a few extra hours’ sleep for once. I plan to meet some friends for lunch tomorrow; and of course I have to do laundry and some cooking. Labor Day is a holiday for most people; so I won’t be able to get more help with my site work until Tuesday. I’ll see what I can do for myself over the next two days. It’s getting rather late to do any more tonight; and I have to wash the dishes anyway. That’s one labor that never goes away!  

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Swagcycle

BACK ISSUES, bicycling, equipment, Uncategorized /

Swagcycle The Swagcycle EB5 is an alternative for folks who are unable to use a regular bicycle. A very handy feature of this bike is that it can fold! That makes it much easier to fit it in the trunk of a car (no bicycle rack needed); or to store in a small apartment. Swagcycle EB5 uses a 36V lithium ion battery (included) to power a 250W hub motor. Charge-up time is four to five hours. This bike can be adjusted for riders from teenagers to adults; and can carry up to 264 lbs. The fully charged battery can carry this bike up to 15.5 miles.  Swagcycle is best suited to flat terrain; so where I live it ought to do just fine. It comes pre-assembled, too! The frame is aluminum; and as to color, remember what Henry Ford said! For that matter, I didn’t pay much attention to what color my hybrid was when I bought it; nor my road bike. I looked to see what the bike shop had; and went from there. Lately I see more and more about e-bikes in social media; and cargo e-bikes seem especially popular. Among other things, parents use them to get young children to school. I’m still quite entrenched in the muscle-power camp; but it’s good to know there are options like the Swagcycle out there.

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Athlete’s Guide to Diabetes

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Athlete’s Guide to Diabetes The Athlete’s Guide to Diabetes is much in my mind again. A few days ago, my A1c levels were re-checked; and they’re still 6.1. That’s in the pre-diabetes range; so I have to keep  watching my diet. I suspect that that will be the case for the rest of my life. This, in fact, is one reason I’m so anxious to retire. I can manage my eating habits better when I’m at home. I’m glad I don’t have Type-I diabetes. From what this book says, managing Type-I with heavy physical activity is quite the juggling act; and it would wear me out! “The Athlete’s Guide to Diabetes” discusses many aspects of diabetes management. It’s a good source of advice for people practicing a wide variety of physical activities: cycling; skiing; golf; and many others. I’ve been way off proper eating for some months; and am trying to get back on track. My wayward eating habits aren’t helping my A1c levels! And after a Sunday long ride, I can easily go berserk with food. Good grief, do I need to eat even more during my rides? The catch there is gut discomfort; especially if I’m working hard against a headwind.  Today, in fact, I did have something of a headwind on the way home. It wasn’t really that strong; but for some reason I felt tired today. My legs simply didn’t have it. And the restrooms at my pit-stop were locked again! I don’t know what’s going on with that; but I had to come home to “do my business”. Then I rode to the park to do a few laps. I planned to ride 40 miles or so; and had gotten in little over 29. It really wan’t much fun riding in the park. By the time I got there, it was rather crowded; and that makes me nervous. I never know when a small child will suddenly make a turn right across my path.  Of the planned five laps, I did only three. But I got in 37.3 miles; and that’s a lot better than 29 miles. I always have my Love to Ride goal in mind; and I still have 1220.5 miles to go! The sky was mostly clear when I set out just before 7:00 am; but the clouds built up quickly over the next two hours. I’m glad I was home when it began to rain at around 1:00 pm.  

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Tweaking

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Tweaking I’m tweaking things again. A site builder’s work is never done! It really does feel like a tug-of-war at times. Building slides can be a hassle. Things looked one way in the slide editor; and another in the actual site! I had to get help with that; and I also needed help with getting my site’s loading time reduced. There’s one slide that sometimes will advance to the next slide quickly; and sometimes it’s very slow! I needed to do a bit of tweaking this morning, too. I got up too late to have time for grapes and peanut butter before my ride; and grabbed a GU. I didn’t plan to ride hard; so I figured one GU would hold me until I got back home. (It did?) As usual, I was a bit anxious about the weather. For the last week or two, the forecasts have often sounded dire. I was worried every evening that I might not get to ride the next morning. Amazingly, I had little trouble. Sometimes I did see lightning; but usually it was quite some distance away. This morning was the first time I ran into rain. After so much anxiety about getting caught in bad weather, it was almost a relief to get rained on! Luckily it wasn’t a very heavy rain. I had seen lightning off to the South; and hoped I could reach home before it got close. During the last mile or two, I began to hear thunder; and was relieved to get off the levee. I want to ride to the salvage store tomorrow; and do a long ride Sunday. So I hope the weather is cooperative over the weekend, or I’ll have to do some more tweaking.

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Tired Again

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Tired Again! I got tired again this morning; tired as in another flat tire! For some reason I’ve had an unusual number of flats lately. I very much suspect that the local road work has something to do with it. Getting to the bike path means riding over rough surfaces. There are probably bits of trash; and so on. Tire liners don’t seem to be helping as much as usual. I guess I ran over something that got lodged in my rear tire. Nothing seemed to be wrong, until my legs suddenly seemed to lose all strength. I was working at pushing myself to 15-16 mph for 4-5 minutes at a time; and trying to get my heart rate up. Then, as I said, my legs gave out; and it didn’t feel like bonking. Right about then I dropped my water bottle; and had to stop and pick it up. Then I noticed the flat. Tired again! I was still at least three miles from home; and didn’t have time to walk that far. So I got back on the bike; and slow-rode the rest of the way. It added a good 20 minutes to my time! With that bone spur in my hand, fixing a flat is painful at best; so I had to visit the bike shop. The sky looked rather threatening; and I decided to walk the bike both to the shop; and back home. Sometimes I simply can’t stomach the thought of riding in the rain!

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Flip Flop Socks

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Flip Flop Socks Try Flip Flop Socks if those straps rub in between your toes. I seldom wear flip flops; but when I do, I sure have that problem. Flip Flop Socks are made of cotton stretch fabric; and keep the sides of your toes from rubbing each other or the footwear. They’re quite versatile; and can also be used with other types of footwear, e.g. cycling shoes. The stretch material means that these socks can fit most people. Machine washable, too! Six pairs to a pack; color, black. Personally, I dislike having anything between my toes; so I haven’t tried these socks. I have plenty of other ones, anyhow; and I’ll stick with them. It’s still hot; and in fact, we’re in the dog days. But the day will come when I need thermal socks. Thermal socks are useful; but  when the temperature drops below about 45, even thermal socks plus regular socks don’t keep my feet warm enough. My hands, too, are very sensitive to cold. Warming packs inside my gloves provide a good bit of relief. I wish there were room inside my shoes for them! As long as the hot weather continues, I can wear regular socks. Or, if you’re a Tour de France fan, Lin Cycling Socks might suit you. Four pairs of socks; each one hinting at one of the winner’s jerseys! Gosh, I’ve gotten far away from Flip Flop Socks. Oh, well — they’re still socks!

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Better Luck Next Time

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Better Luck Next Time Better luck next time; or so I hope. Do you think it might help if I got a cat like this one? Today I set out on the road bike, and I wanted to put in about 40 miles. The sky was already overcast; and I hoped to be back home before afternoon T-storms developed. The goal: 40 miles. So, I got to my pit-stop place; and discovered that the restrooms were locked. Whatever for? That’s inhumane! I’m lucky I didn’t urgently need a restroom; and I just went back home. But of course that meant a drastic cut to my planned mileage; 29.20 miles just doesn’t measure up against 40. The wind this morning was almost calm; but the humidity was way up there at 88%. The clouds helped keep the temperature down a bit; and I ran into only two brief drizzles of rain.  I decided not to go out again. There was no telling when those T-storms might fire up; but as of early afternoon, they hadn’t made an appearance. As usual in such cases, I think I could have gone for a ride; and wonder why I didn’t. Well, better luck next time! But if we are going to have T-storms, I wish they would get themselves over with!  I checked my supply of GU-Gels; and I have to order some more of them soon. Often I’ll get two boxes at a time. I like to have more than one flavor on hand, because it helps me avoid so-called flavor fatigue! This weekend I’m skipping the cooking. My freezer is still pretty full; and I get SO tired of washing pots and dishes! By next weekend, I’ll have to crank up my invention mill again; and think up a new Hoppin’ John variation. This time I think I’ll use canned beans, and get a few more cans out of here.

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Eurobike

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Eurobike The Eurobike Road EURXC550 is in an affordable price range for most folks; and is great for riding on paved surfaces. This bicycle features a carbon steel frame; and dual disc brakes provide lots of stopping power. A riding bag is included; so this one makes a nice commuting bike. Some assembly is required; instructions and the tools you’ll need come with the bike. Then just pump up the tires; and off you go! Speaking of pumping tires, a floor pump isn’t practical to take along on a ride. The Pro Bike Tool Pump is an alternative; however, it does need re-drilled holes in the bike frame for mounting. Maybe the Pro Bike Tool Inflator would do. Just be sure to carry some CO2 cartridges with you! The Eurobike, I admit, seems heavy to me. It weighs 39 lb/17.69 kg; that’s heavier than my hybrid. I probably wouldn’t want it for a century ride. Then again, I did a 100-miler on my adult trike; and that rig probably weighed about 50-55 pounds! Whatever bike I’m using, today I’m not doing much riding. I needed fresh produce; and for that I go to Winn Dixie. My round trip was less than six miles; and a trip to the ATM and the drug store added barely over two more miles. By the time I finished those errands, it was getting quite hot; and I was also quite hungry! The sky was pretty cloudy; and I wasn’t sure what the weather might do. So I stayed home; but I didn’t hear thunder until about 12:20 pm.  I hope I can get myself going early tomorrow. Isolated T-storms are predicted from 10:00 am; and Eurobike or not, I don’t like to be caught in a storm!   

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