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bicycling

Tired of Waiting

BACK ISSUES, bicycling, Outdoors /

Tired of Waiting I’m tired of waiting for it to rain. The forecasts keep saying 40% chance; even 100% chance of T-storms; and it it’s going to storm, I wish it would do so. Last night, my phone rang with a severe T-storm warning around 10:00 pm; but this morning it didn’t look like it had rained. A neighbor said it did rain early this morning, though. Today there was yet another heat advisory, starting at 11:00m am. I didn’t get out on the bicycle until almost nine o’clock; and I decided to go ride in the park, where I could get some shade. I also wanted to be fairly close to home, in case the weather got bad. I could see that it had rained in the park. It’s a funny thing about rain — one location doesn’t get a drop; and a mile away it rains hard. There were a number of wet spots on the bike path in the park. After three laps, I decided to go back home. Even in the park, there was a sign about the heat advisory; and I needed to get some laundry done, anyway. On top of that, I was starting to feel hollow. So here it is, 2:00 pm; and the storm still hasn’t broken out. I’m tired of waiting.  

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I Love Tailwinds

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

I Love Tailwinds! I love tailwinds! What cyclist doesn’t? During yesterday’s ride, I got a good breeze behind me on the way home; and for four or five seconds was cruising at 20+ mph! For me, that’s very fast. That’s why I love tailwinds. Today was different. I rode to the salvage store; and the wind was pesky. Tomorrow looks like more of the same; and I’d better ride early in the day. The afternoon heat index might reach 111 degrees! That’s when I’m glad to be indoors, with the air conditioner running; and an icy cola to drink. Gosh, I’m getting soft. I grew up in this hot, humid climate with no A/C; and now I’d be hard-pressed to do without it. My distance this morning was extended by a few miles. Almost two miles into the ride to the salvage store, I remembered that I didn’t have my wallet with me; and I had to go back home to fetch it. What a nuisance that was! In addition, if I had been one minute later, I would have had to wait for a freight train! I was glad that I beat it to the crossing; but I didn’t escape the blast from its horn. Talk about LOUD!!  Back home I ate an early lunch; then after another short errand I could get to editing my website. It still needs a lot of work. In fact, I don’t think it will ever end. If I’ve learned only one thing about keeping a website, it’s that a website is a work in progress. Creating a menu bar, aka nav bar, isn’t complicated in itself; but when I have to create new pages to link to the menu it gets very time-consuming! After several hours of such intense mental focus, I feel like a zombie. I wish there were some kind of tailwind that could speed up the process; but there isn’t. I hope I’ll get a tailwind at least part of the time during tomorrow’s ride. Then I’ll have an energy boost for further editing work when I get home.    

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Slot Machine

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Slot Machine? The slot machine can be bad news. I, for one, intend to leave the thing alone. But sometimes the routes we ride can turn into a slot machine. Be aware of any grooves in the road parallel to your direction of travel. If you catch your front wheel in such a groove, you can go down. Or even go endo! You might not be applying the front brake; but the result can be the same. One of the places where we need to be careful is a railroad crossing; especially if the pavement surrounding the rails has become worn. It’s amazing how quickly that wear can occur, too.  Sometimes slots involve old and battered road surfaces. They might form along the painted lines on the road; or a slot could mean a pothole. The only thing to do about slots is to keep your guard up. Keep your front wheel clear of them! If possible, cross railroad tracks, or any slot, as near to perpendicular as possible. Rough surfaces — including potholes — and road debris (broken glass, etc.) are why I use tire liners. They go a long way in preventing flats; but are no help against the “slot machine”.

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Magic Carpet

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Magic Carpet? Magic carpet sounds like something out of the Arabian Nights; or maybe some super-duper rug cleaning product.    I decided to get a small rug for my rocking chair, so the rockers don’t wear the wood floor. I also saw that my bicycles needed something to keep their tires from leaving scuff marks; and ordered area rugs for them, too. I’ve seen cartoons that show a magic carpet flying through the air, all by itself; but it might be fun to have a bicycle-powered flying rug. It probably would provide a smoother ride than a number of the streets around here; and I’d still get my exercise. There’s a catch, though: is a headwind worse riding a bicycle on the ground; or pedaling a rug through the sky? I might never know; but it’s fun to think about it. Today’s ride to the salvage store was as usual; but I was delayed leaving home for a bit when I had to deal with a most unusual intruder. I’m not sure how that snake got in here; but yesterday they installed a new storm door. Maybe it sneaked in during the work. It already feels like Summer; and at 3:45 pm it was 92 degrees! The humidity level was at 38%; and that’s low for us. It helps keep the heat from feeling so sweltering. This morning I skipped riding out to see the full moon. I’ve been tired, what with moving and all; and I don’t have a magic carpet to ride on!

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Squirrely

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Squirrely! “Squirrely” is a characteristic unwanted in cycling; especially for group riding. The squirrely rider is unpredictable: he or she swerves and/or wobbles; and doesn’t hold a straight line. When riding close to others, this can cause unintended contact and subsequent crashes; and nobody wants that! It’s a long time since I’ve done any group riding; but maybe I should think about finding a way to get some. If I’m to do RAGBRAI next year — or any year! — I’ll be riding with many other cyclists. If you’re unused to group riding, it’s unnerving to suddenly be in a big pack of riders. They say that practicing on rollers is a good way to develop the skill of holding a straight line. I don’t have rollers; and I don’t want to get too much stuff too soon. My new place has more room than the old one did; but there’s no reason to hurry to fill it up. Let me have some elbow room! When I’m riding, I notice that I tend to be squirrely, especially when handling a water bottle. Sometimes I swerve all over the bike path! That sounds like a good excuse to use a Camel-Bak; but I need to be able to use the water bottle while holding my line. For weekend long rides, I do use the Camel-Bak; but I have a bottle of electrolyte drink to deal with. I got to thinking about this topic because of some odd squirrel sightings in the past week. I saw one that had a very short tail; and I thought maybe it had been injured. Today, I saw a similar squirrel; and these two sightings occurred several days and a mile or so apart. Unless those “bushy tailed rats” (my brother’s term) are terrific treetop travelers, I wonder whether some kind of mutation has struck the local squirrel population!

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Put Friction to Use

BACK ISSUES, bicycling, equipment /

Put Friction to Use Put friction to use with the Bike Friction Generator Headlight. It fits most bicycles: BMX, e-bike, and more! Set includes headlight; tail light; dynamo; and necessary tools. Spare cable, too! Lights are 12 volts/6 watts. They make a great item for a bicycle tour packing list; especially if you’ll be far from places to charge up your lights; or unable to buy batteries. $23.24 I’ve never tried a light like this one; but I can see the advantages. No buying dry batteries, the cost of which adds up fast. There aren’t any cables creating clutter in the home. You don’t have to worry about what you’ll do if you forget to charge your lights; and have a pre-dawn ride planned. Just hop on the bike and ride; and put friction to use! I remember reading that using this type of light does slow your speed slightly; perhaps by one mile per hour. As long as you aren’t racing, that might not matter. A concern of mine is that cable. Will the Bike Friction Generator Headlight short out in heavy rain? I had that problem with my earliest bicycle computers; and it drove me crazy. Shorting cables might be a problem if I ride this afternoon. There’s a chance of T-storms; and it isn’t fun to get caught out on a bicycle when the lightning starts to fire up. But maybe I’ll skip the ride today; I think I actually need the break.

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Get a Move On

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Get a Move On I had to get a move on. The place where I rented an apartment since before Katrina was sold; and I had to find another place. Fortunately I had some months to look around; and that’s lucky, because I could get my hand surgery out of the way. I had adequate time to recover before I really had to get down to the business of packing. You never know how much stuff you’ve got until you have to move it all! It makes the 100 things challenge seem quite appealing. Per my brother’s suggestion, I had ordered a pack of twenty-five 12 x 12  x 12 inch boxes. I wish I had ordered fifty! I had many other boxes (in many sizes!); and it was barely enough. Today was moving day. I moved only a short distance; and yesterday I was able to get the key and start bringing in things. Some friends who have an SUV offered to help me; and we took as much as the vehicle could hold. I made several trips by hybrid, hauling stuff in the trailer. Even so, there was plenty of stuff left for the movers. I began at 6:00 am — first I pedaled my road bike over to the new apartment. Then I walked home; hitched up the trailer; and got several loads done before I had to wait for the movers to come. They arrived around 10:00 am; and while they were loading up the van, I had time to take another load or two with my bicycle trailer. When they were ready, I rode ahead and they followed. It was 11:30 when we finished; and then I had to wait for the phone company to come and set up my Internet/WiFi service. By then, I felt like I could take a good nap in a box! (I bet Dr. Seuss could have done something with that idea!) Thankfully, I didn’t have to cook lunch. My sister-in-law very kindly ordered a food delivery for me! My new abode seems very cramped at the moment. There are boxes everywhere; and I’m too tired to deal with unpacking everything tonight. Until I get all the boxes emptied out, I have to deal with one of the maddening aspects of having my stuff all over the place: I keep losing things! Hauling all those loads let me get a move on; although not very fast. In fact, I resorted to my granny gear because of the weight I was pulling. So, despite my low mileage today, I got plenty of exercise!

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Long-Distance Cycling

16 Comments / BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

FAVORITES I have my favorites, just like anybody else. Here is one of my favorite books: [The Complete Book of] Long-Distance Cycling! So far I’ve never been able to try the mega-distance rides mentioned in this book; and even if I wanted to go for it, RAAM is quite beyond me! But if you want to put in the training, Long-Distance Cycling offers practical advice: physically building up to long rides; mental aspects of mega-miles in the saddle; and nutrition for long rides. Maybe you could call it my Cycling Dream Book! $11.66 My longest ride since my hand surgery was 22-23 miles. That’s half of what I was doing late last year; and I hope I can work back up to 40-mile rides soon. I must think more urgently about RAGBRAI 2024! That includes food; but will my favorites be adequate fuel for an average of ~65 miles per day, for seven days straight?  

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Small Things Matter

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Small Things Matter Small things matter. For example, pennies, which many seem to despise these days, add up. So I save mine! Small things come into play during bicycle rides. Sometimes it means when I make my turnaround. This can make the difference between getting caught by a train at a railroad crossing; or having time to safely get over the tracks. Today, when I went out, there was a freight train idling perhaps a half-block short of the crossing. When I came back over an hour later, the train was still there; but less than two minutes later, as I reached my front gate, that locomotive horn began to blow. If I had ridden even a quarter-mile farther, I would have had to wait for the train.  On the way home, I stopped for a minute to watch a ship on the river. The flag on the stern staff was fluttering around too much for me to get a really good look at it; but I noted the ship’s name. After I was home, I googled it; and found that the ship was from the Marshall Islands. Today I didn’t make deliberate efforts to go hard; but I did have a headwind on the way home. Same old story, that! In fact, it was blowing at some 15 mph. I’m now home with the problem of completing my packing for next week’s move. I’ve got some things that are awkwardly sized and/or shaped for boxes. There are small things that I use so much that it doesn’t make sense to pack them just yet. A few times I’ve even wished I hadn’t stowed away this or that into a box — and taped the box shut. It shows me how much small things matter. I may be able to get into the new place the day before my planned move; and that would be great! I can measure the floor space; and decide where I want to put my furniture. Then I can start bringing in small items. That will mean numerous short trips using hybrid and trailer — but as long as I can do it, I’m getting a head start!

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