Utility Cycling 101: How do I get started?

Definition:

Utility Cycling;  The act of using the bicycle for any practical purpose or pursuit.

Please note, it’s okay to enjoy the act of “practical” cycling!

How does one get started on this?  It’s not hard.  Start with just one trip.  Pick some errand or chore that would ordinarily be done in a car.  Grab a bicycle.  Then Ride to do the trip.  It’s that simple.

The errand could be returning that library book, or picking up that perscription.  It could be going to that club meeting.  It could be dropping the video in the box, or going to the Post Office.  Note:  It doesn’t have to be any great or grand thing.  Just replace one trip by car with one trip by bike.

What kind of bike?  One that rolls and will get you there.  Likely you have access to something of the sort.  Sure, it could be a bit of over-kill to take your beloved carbon wonder-bike to the drug store, but so what?  On the other hand, it might seem a bit beneath your dignity to take the old clunker mountain bike out and ride it to the store to pick up that loaf of bread.  Again, so what?  Are either of these trips really worth burning a gallon of gasoline?  What do you really have to lose?

Great journeys start with one step.  Grand buildings begin with one shovel of dirt moved.  Every large accomplishment is luanched with some small deed.  So it is with utility cycling.  One does not become a dedicated transportation cyclist all at once.  For that matter, one doesn’t necessarily need to ever completely replace the automobile.  But it makes good sense to replace at least some of our driving with something more positive and beneficial.

We’ll discuss purpose built bikes and tactics in future articles in this series.  But for now, look for that one trip.  The one that could be replaced by a bike ride.  It doesn’t have to be long.  No need for epics yet.  Just find that one short trip and replace it with a gentle bike ride.  That’s a great way to start.

Persistence

“You say the hill’s to steep to climb”

“Climb it.”

“You say you’d like to see me try”

“Climbing.”

“You pick the place and I’ll choose the time”

“And I’ll climb”

“That hill in my own way.”

“Just wait for the right day.”

“And as I rise above the tree lines and the clouds”

“I look down, hearing the sound of the things you’ve said today.”

(Fearless  Waters, Gilmour)

There are things one does on a bike, things that mean something to the individual.  For me, each and every one of these meaningful things was something that didn’t work the first time, something that took effort, repeated attempts, and often a lot of false starts and failures along the way.

My first attempt at a hard climb wasn’t a mountain.  It was a steep street in Staunton, Virginia.  I didn’t make it.  In fact, I barely made 20 feet before I stalled.  Wrong bike.  Wrong rider.  Wrong day.

I eventually got it right.  There is no way to relate the feeling I had as I crested that hill the first time.  Today, I have no idea how many times I have climbed it.  It always leaves me breathless and hurting.  It’s always good.

The first attempt at climbing a mountain was similar.  I started the thing.  Soon the legs were on fire.  The lungs followed.  I’d barely gone a mile before I had to pull over and stop.  I made two more stops, and two more starts on the way up.  I did make it to the top, but it wasn’t pretty, and I walked the last half mile.

One of the best days I ever had was the day I rode, in one long unbroken effort, to the top of that mountain climb.  At the top I knew that I could do this.  It still wasn’t pretty, but it was a triumph.

It is not given to all of us to be fast, or to be great climbers, or to be super endurance riders.  Sometimes the best yardsticks are not the accomplishments of others, but rather the testing of our own limits, and the surpassing of our own boundries.

We do not know what we are capable of.  We will never learn without the risk of failure.  We will never improve without the will to persist.

Preparing for The Audax Ride:

Going long more a state of mind than it is a physical act.  That said, getting the bod and bike in condition are good and worthy actions.

The body:  To begin with, just get into the saddle.  Do it now.  Do it regularly.  Do it often.  Start with five to seven hours per week.  That’s not hard to accomplish.  Do a one hour ride on every weekday, and one two hour jaunt on the weekends.  Keep the effort level low, and enjoy  the thing.  Alternately, three each hour-and-a-half ride, evenly spread through the week would work well.  The key is to be on the bike, and to do it consistently.

If you can, make two of these rides into fairly serious workouts, and the others very low-key.  But time on the bike is more critical than high effort.

Weather and darkness can make some of this a little difficult.  Spin Class can help.  We do a great one at Bicycles Unlimited.  I’d avoid a gym type class.  Most of them are “suffer parties” which don’t target specific areas a cyclist needs.

Note:  It’s not possible to be consistent part of the time.  The goal is to ride regularly, and do it spread throughout the week.  A five to seven hour thrash, once a week, will do more damage than good.  Put another way, it’s not possible to make up for three off days, by riding three times as long on the fourth.

The Bike:  For now, get it clean.  Lubricate the driveline.  Inflate the tires.  Get any minor problems fixed.  Go Ride.  You’ll want to get a good thorough tune up done around the end of the first week of February.

The first of the Audax Tune Up Rides is on February 26.  The trick it to get any real deficiencies identified and corrected by then.

We’ll soon have more on this subject, including the hows and more importantly the whys.  Until then, go out and ride!  Engage this week, and enjoy it!

Getting through the Winter

Okay, the year is launched.  Most folks (not all!) have put away the Christmas decorations.  The greeting card companies are already gearing up for an attempt at Valentine’s day.  In somewhat typical fashion, our north Georgia Winter has arrived in earnest.  To make matters a bit worse, there are any number of bits on “resolutions” in various media.  (Most of these are pretty depressing.)  What ever are we to do?

For those of us who ride, getting through the Winter is a tough chore.  Yes, the days are getting slightly longer now, but it will be a long time before the effect is worth noting.  Winter brings us cold, rain, and dark, often all three at once.  It take some strategy to get through this.

In my experience, the biggest aid to getting through all of this is to have some goals.  Long term goals are good.  They motivate us.  Intermediate goals are mileposts that help us keep track of our progress in reaching the longer ones.  Short Term Goals and Process Goals keep us on track, and accountable, in the day-to-day routine.

For the Long Term Goal, pick something big and exciting, something that turns you on.  This isn’t a “it would be nice to…” kind of thing.  It should be something that feels like you must do it.  Something from your “bucket list.”  Don’t pick something because you feel you should, but rather go for that thing that grabs you by the throat.  The thing that makes your heart race a bit.  And yes, the thing that’s a little scary.

In my own modest way, I’d like to offer some stuff that might work in with your goals.

There will be an annual Audax Ride coming up in the Spring.  In aid of that there will be four Audax Tune Up rides.  The Seasonal Night Rides will resume with the Spring Equinox in March.  I’m considering a couple of weekend touring type rides.  These will be two or three day self-supported tours to distant locations and back.  You’ll be seeing more about all of this (dates, times, and descriptions) in the very near future.

In the shorter term, we are still offering Spin Classes at Bicycles Unlimited.  These will continue until Spring.  Don’t delay.  Come in and sign up now.  (There’s that intermediate goal thing, coupled with some process goals.)

Basically, the best suggestion I have for getting through the dark months is, “Get busy, and stay active.”  Goals help.  More to come.

Obstinate

Sometimes stubborn is a survival trait.  Cycling can be that way.  The bike, and riding have a way of fighting back.  Cold, dark, and weather can nibble at us.  So here are a few words to live by.

“You don’t know when to give up.”

Winston Churchill:  “Never give in.  Never give in.  Never, never, never, never, give in!”

Don’t know how to quit.

Too dumb to know when you’re beaten.

A cyclist can always go another 10 miles.

The limit of human endurance has never been reached.

Go down fighting.

Carpe Diem!

Training: The Basics

We’re starting another series here.  This one will run for several weeks, and is intended to present some of the most basic information about why to train, how to train, what to train for, and how to stay sane while doing it.

We’ll start with the two most important questions, often asked on the subject. “What do you mean by training?”  and “Why should I train?”

Training Defined:  At it’s simplest and most basic, training consists of a Regular and Consistent program of physical activity.  This activity consists of the application of a calculated overload of effort, in order to stimulate a super-compensation, which takes place during carefully structured periods of rest and recovery.

In short, Get off your couch and ride!  But do it with a plan and a purpose.  Do it regularly.  Get regular and sufficient rest.

The Why of it:  There are as many reasons for training as there are cyclists.  Here are some of the most common ones.

• Want more speed
• Plan to do a long or important ride
• Lose weight
• Want to feel better
• Considering competition
• Want to feel younger and stronger
• Want more energy
• Want to be ready in case of an emergency
• Tired of being tired
• Want to step it up to the next level of events

Good and intelligent training can accomplish any or all of these objectives.  I should warn, on some of them the approach is a bit counterintuitive.

I’m going to close this post with a bit of wisdom.  We’ll be coming back to that list above, and this list of “commandments” more in the future

10 Commandments of Training

I)              Train MODERATELY

II)            Train CONSISTENTLY

III)          Get ADEQUATE REST

IV)          Train with a PLAN

V)            Train with groups INFREQUENTLY

VI)          Plan to PEAK

VII)        Improve weaknesses

VIII)      TRUST your TRAINING

IX)          LISTEN to your body

X)            COMMIT to your GOALS

Next week we’ll discuss “Overtraining.”

Let’s Do It In The Dirt

Remember, the sage once said,  “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.”

A realization has gradually penetrated my ample cranial armor.  I’ve come to the awareness that a great many of my fellow cyclists don’t like to ride on dirt roads.  I know.  This is a shocking revelation.

Consider, one of the most often voiced complaints is about the hazards of riding on open roads with traffic.  A close second to that complaint (at least during the warmer months) is that it is “too hot out!”

Interestingly, dirt roads usually do not carry much in the way of traffic, and what traffic there is will be moving much more slowly.  Unpaved roads and lanes are often quite nicely shaded.  Besides, being able to use a dirt road can often provide a rider with a good, viable shortcut or alternate route.  There are vistas and other sights that are unique to our unpaved roads.  One would think that folks would seek them out.

The Objections:

1. It will kill my bike.
2. My bike will get dirty.
3. I’ll have a flat.
4. I might fall down.
5. What if it rains?  The road would be impossible then.
6. You can’t ride a road bike on dirt.

The Answers:

Let's take those by the numbers.

1. No it won’t.  Your bike is made to ride on roads.  Dirt, or unpaved roads are roads just the same.  Your bike is a lot stronger than you think.
2. Yes, your bike may get dirty.  So?  In dry weather, the “dirty” from unpaved riding is mostly dust.  Wipe it down afterwards.  (You are using a semi-dry chain lube.  Right?)  Re-lube the chain.  Done.  In wet weather, you are going to get a bit muddy.  Again, do a wipe down afterward.  (You should be doing that anyway.)
3. Flats do happen, but less so on dirt roads.  There is one important caveat to that last.  If your tires are properly inflated, you are unlikely to flat off the pavement.  Dirt and gravel surfaces are uneven.  (No surprise there.)  An under-inflated tire is much more likely to flat in the dirt.
4. You might.  But you might fall down walking down the hall at work.  In fact, riders are less likely to fall on unpaved surfaces.  At first they are slower and more cautious.  Things happen more slowly.  There’s more time to unclip and get a foot down.  It all works out.  The good news is, there is no troll hiding in the gravel, waiting to fling you and your bike to the ground.
5. Oddly, unpaved roads are generally easier to ride in the rain.  I travel over dirt road sections on my way to and from work.  I do this in all weather.  I look forward to the rainy days for these sections.  The dust is kept down, the gravel is cemented into the surface and less sketchy, and the dusty parts are firmer.  I don’t find the traction less, and control is actually enhanced.  Besides, most of you won’t ride in the rain at all, and if you get caught on the dirt in the rain, bail out, and go home on pavement.
6. Apparently no one notified the Pros about this.  They do that little thing called Paris-Roubaix every year.  It’s on cobbles, dirt, and (sometimes) pavement.  They do it on road bikes.  Actually, at all levels of racing, there are events with unpaved sections.  It’s considered part of the sport.  And if anyone needs more convincing, please go and use The Google to look up Cyclocross.  Further, I’ve done an extensive search of the literature, and I can not find a specific proscription against riding a road bike on dirt.  Just ain’t so.  There is a tiny bit of justification here though.  Not all road bikes are equal.  The more road race oriented a road bike, the less comfortable it will be off pavement.  (We’ll do a post on equipment and technique soon.)

In short, riding unpaved roads is fun, relaxing, and it keeps a rider fresh.  It improves handling skills, and it helps to break up the monotony.  Aside from that, it puts another useful tool in the box.

Fall and Winter Training Principles:

Let’s start by simplifying and clarifying.

You can not ride hard all the time.

You should not ride hard all the time.

Losing fat is simple (simple doesn’t mean easy)

            Eat a proper amount of healthy food.

            Get strong.

            Go long.

High intensity is a strong drug, best taken in careful and closely controlled moderation.

High intensity work = increased endurance

Long low intensity efforts = increased speed

Most of the time you are riding too hard to help the speed stuff, and too easy to improve endurance.  That’s called junk milage.

Cyclists need to do work off of the bike.

Strength and flexibility training are essential.  Especially for the maturing athlete.

Overtraining:  Any training load that the body can not accept and adapt to.  It is possible to overtrain in one workout.  There is also long term overtraining, where you just do too much over a longer period of time.

The body will only respond and adapt to the same kind of loading for about 12 weeks.

Rest and recovery are essential.

Okay.  Got all that?  Now here’s a little hint about what’s coming.  If you don’t already own them, go out and purchase some dumbells.  I’d suggest a pair of three pounders and a pair of five pounders to start.  More tomorrow.

Autumn Expectations

We are actually having an Autumn season.  We can expect odd weather from time to time.  That’s part of living in north Georgia.  We are inland, and at a surprising elevation.  These things affect our weather.  There is no nearby large body of water to moderate our temp swings.  Most of our weather comes to us from somewhere else.  A lot depends on just which air masses get here, and in what order they arrive.

All that said, there is a La nina pattern in the Pacific.  This is sort of the opposite of an El Nino.  What it means for us is that we expect to see warmer than usual average temperatures, and drier conditions for the Fall and Winter.

Please notice the use of the word average.  We can expect to see big temperature swings on a daily basis, and over weeks too.  The averages will be higher, the swings will, likely, be wider.  It should be drier than the “normal,” but that doesn’t mean no rain.

What does that mean for cyclists?  We’re going to see some more really good riding weather, but we’ll need to be prepared for a wider set of conditions.  This is especially true for long rides.  It may start out quite cool, but the same day could turn very warm.  Expect to see plenty of days with a 25 to 30 degree temperature swing.  That means we’ll likely have to wear, and then carry, more clothing.

The long dry stretches will be tempting, but carry your rain jacket.  The rain, when it comes, will often do so without a lot of warning.

Learn to handle weather.  It’s going to be a good season to work on those weather skills.  For those who haven’t attempted colder riding, night riding, or Winter weather riding in general, this season presents opportunities.    We should see a wide range of conditions (sometimes all in the same day), but they should not be especially severe.  That should provide us with opportunities to attempt riding in varied situations, and yet not risk diving into something too harsh to handle.

It’s been gratifying to see how many folks have talked night riding this year.  Now how about night riding in cooler weather?  Rain?  Hey, maybe some will even attempt commuting.  Who knows where this could end?  We might even see some serious all season cyclists come out of this year.

Thursday Thoughts ~~ Training?

“What are you training for?”  I was asked that recently.  Turns out it’s a pretty good and interesting question.

The overwhelming majority of us are amateur athletes.  We pursue athletics as a recreation, a hobby, a pastime.  We have jobs and occupations which are primary in our lives.  We pursue some field of athletics for the pure love of it, or for the challenge and joy of competition.  But we don’t get paid for it.  We don’t have to do it.  So why bother?

In my own case, I haven’t entered a serious event in the last year.  So what am I training for?  For the last year my training has been on “autopilot.”  I have been training from the habit of training.  I was doing so because I knew that there would be an event or challenge in my future.  I just had not defined a specific goal. 

This past year has been instructive.  For many years, I’ve had very well defined, tightly focused training goals.  I needed a break.  I needed to reassess who I was, and what I was training for.  In short, I needed to refresh, clear my head, and define some new and different goals.  But that hasn’t stopped me from training.  I train because it is a large part of who I am.

I am in the process of forming some goals for next year.  By that I mean, I am looking for a few, very specific, well defined events to aim at.  When I have decided on those events, I’ll have a short answer to that first question.  I will be able to say,  “I’m training for such-and-such.”

There is a larger meaning to the question.  It can be read as,  “Why are you training?”  or even as,  “Why would you even bother to set goals, pick events, and go through the hassle, pain, and stress of training for them?”

The surface answer to that would be,  “Because it makes me happy.”  I enjoy the process of planning training, of charting progress, of selecting short term, intermediate, and long term goals.  I am greatly rewarded by achieving those big goals.  And there are big benefits that accrue from the process.  I relish the feeling of coming into “condition.”  I like being healthy, and strong, and having good endurance.  I get a kick out of walking with a spring in my step.  Perversely, I enjoy the feeling of arising in the morning, feeling stiff and a little sore, as a result of recent hard training efforts.  I relish the activity of working toward an achievement, and then standing at the finish, goal met.

I will have some very well defined training goals and events to work for in 2011.  The training for these events will begin soon, in the Autumn of 2010.  There may be finish lines and medals involved.  There may not.  But there definitely will be ironclad times, places, and accomplishments.  That, after all is what a goal is.  It’s a dream with a deadline on it.

But, “What are you training for?”  I think the real answer is,  “I’m training for my life.”

Thursday Thoughts ~~ How to End a Cycling Career

I believe in competition.  More I believe that everyone should enter some kind of competition, at least every two to three years.  Yes, that’s pretty general, and it could mean anything, but I’ll get to cycling specifics in a moment.

I like the idea of “Formal Competition,” on a somewhat regular basis.  It’s good for us.  We learn things in the contest that we could not learn any other way.  And win, lose, or draw, a good race can be a lot of fun.  But…

Please note, I used a term, “Formal Competition.”  I’m much in favor of this.  The “formal” means an organized, sanctioned event.  One with rules.  One that has impartial officials, and one that takes place in a controlled venue.  On a level field, the contest has real meaning.  It’s kind of important too, that all the participants know that a race is on.  I’m not in favor of street racing, or “secret racing,” or “charity racing.”

There is something about cycling that brings out the competitive in us.  I don’t know why this is, and I don’t understand it.  I’m put in mind of something Faulkner wrote, to the effect that, if there were two horses in a county, one could be assured that there would be a race.  Maybe that’s part of it.  Certainly a lot of the marketing of the cycling industry centers around competitive sport.

However, we should all remember one thing.  Cycling is a pastime.  It should be fun.  Wasn’t it the element of Joy that brought us into this?  I would guess that most would answer yes to that question.

And therein is the problem.  You see, we got into it for joy.  And at some point most of us start to be competitive.  Whether that competitive urge is expressed formally, or not, it tends to get expressed.  Then comes the part that can be corrosive.

I see this scenario play out far too often.  An individual in early to middle adulthood returns to cycling.  Usually there is the excuse of needing to recover fitness.  But the bike is chosen as a means to this end, because it is fun!

Then, after the suffering of returning to fitness, the individual drifts toward the contest.  There are some mixed early results.  Then comes some form of success. Next thing, the now not so new rider is “training,” and doing a lot of racing.  Racing becomes an obsession.  “Fun rides,” vanish.  It’s “march or die!”

This individual doesn’t know it, but their days as a cyclist are numbered.  Racing rules!  But racing is an extremely harsh mistress.  And one day the results begin to diminish.  So, urged on by various bicycle-specific “beauty magazines,” the obsessed competitor begins to ride harder, train more, and have less fun doing it.

The day will come when this person will “hit the wall.”  It might be an injury that does it.  It could be a crash.  It could be just one lousy race too many.  But the adult-child who returned to this delightful pastime, grows weary of it, and walks away.

What’s the cure?  The only thing I can figure is, don’t take yourself, your bike, or your racing too seriously.  And when it starts to get intense, leave all the training tools at home, and go for a long, slow ride to the grocery store.  Look at the world!  Maybe invite some folks who are really slow along for a ride, and make sure you are at the back the whole way.

It’s a thought.

Another Country Heard From…

Johan Here.  I am speaking for the Road Dragon today.  He was lazy this weekend.  He went to the mountains for recreation.  I think he is riding his bicycle while he is there.

Zo.  I am writing post for this day.

Here is what I have to say.  You should all go out for a bike ride.  Ride hard.  Even if it rains, you should be riding.  So what is rain?  If a little rain scares you, what are you going to do in Winter?  Hah?

I am saying something else.  I see many of you riding.  You ride like little persons.  You all have many many excuses.  “There are dogs,”  you say.  “What if it rains?”  you say.  “I don’t want to get my nice bike dirty,”  you say.

I say this.  Dogs are for sprinting practice.  Rain is good for you.  Dirt roads and pave’ make you strong and brave.  First you ride.  Then you clean the bike!  This is not a problem.

I tell you.  Be happy when you have problems.  Problems make you strong.  Problems give you a strong brain.  A strong brain makes a strong rider.

This is Johan.  Have a goot day.  Goodbye.

Shedding the “Seasonal Rider” category: Fit and ready for LIFE

Last week, we spoke a bit about “seasonal riders.”  (see Thursday Thoughts ~~ Crash Season)  The pattern described there is an all too common one.  Sadly, it tends to lead folks to a point where they leave the sport.  The jokes abound.  There’s the “Old Guys Who Get Fat in Winter Racing Team.”  There are references to “MAMILs.”  (Middle Aged Men In Lycra)  But truly, it’s not funny.

The consequence of being a “Seasonal Rider” is that there is another nasty pattern.  It’s called “The Aging Process.”

When we are kids, in our teens and twenties, we can come back from almost anything, and do it quickly.  To a lesser extent, this ability persists into the thirties.  But Old Mom Nature plays a dirty trick on us, and throws a switch, somewhere around age 35.  Suddenly, recovering lost fitness is harder, and it hurts more.  Suddenly weight goes on a lot easier, and comes off a lot harder.  It takes longer, and requires more suffering to “get back into shape,” each Spring.  Allowing oneself to “go slack” during the colder months has greater penalties with each passing year.

Now some folks have figured this thing out.  They play other sports, do more gym work, go mountain biking, go skiing, swim indoors, or such during the cold and dark times.  If you are among those happy individuals, then you can skip the rest of this post.  Have a good and happy life.

Still with me?  Here’s one guaranteed way to break that Winter loss of fitness cycle.

Ready?

The secret is simple.

It consists of doing two things.

1)  ENTER SOMETHING!!

2)  WRITE A CHECK!!

Really.  Pick an event.  Preferably it should be some challenging event, and it must happen early in the year.  Commit to entering it.  Write the check.

Once the check is written, the event becomes real.  Now you have a “Damocles Sword” (look it up) hanging over you.  You must train throughout the Winter.  If you don’t, you’re gonna regret it, and the money you spent will be a waste.  You will not let that happen.

Honest.  It’s that simple.  And the rewards?  Well, to begin with, you will derive tremendous satisfaction from doing something that most folks are not in condition 

Thursday Thoughts ~~ Busy

It is a busy time of the year.  Our annual Tour of Faith is coming up fast.  I have the task of preparing the route.  It takes a lot of time, and involves a lot of legwork.  Not the least of the issues involved is the expenditure of hours verifying and producing cue sheets.  The course must be ridden and driven, repeatedly, to scout for problems, and finally to be painted.

So I let my friend Johan the Belgian take over blog duties yesterday.  Apparently Johan expressed himself with his usual blunt frankness.  That is, after all, his style.  Still, it is worth listening to him.

That brings me to my thought for the day.  Every so often we need to go out and test ourselves.  We’ve spoken a good bit about riding in warm weather.  Personally, I prefer the heat to cold.  Summer centuries are great events to do some of this testing.  The rider is supported by a crew of folks.  There are well stocked rest stops, and SAG drivers out on the course, looking out for folks who might need help.

I would like to suggest that you ride our own Tour of Faith.  It benefits Wellspring Living.  It is (even if I do say so myself) a great route.  There’s a lot of fun stuff surrounding the event.  So click on Tour of Faith to register.

Ride for Fun

See that title?  We’re leading up to something here.  We talk a lot about training.  We strongly promote the idea of using the bike for utility, to replace a lot of driving.  These are good and worthy objectives.  It is good to ride to increase fitness.  It is worthy to find ways to stop burning oil.  But in reality, what motivates us to get on the thing and ride?

Why does any of us ride a bike in the first place?  Why did we ever start riding?  The answer is often complex, but it has a lot to do with Fun.  Can you remember the first time you actually rode on your own?  Likely you were laughing your head off, and having a blast.  Sure it was a bit scary, but that added to the fun.

Here’s the thing, when it comes to motivation, Pleasure and Joy will trump Guilt and Shame every time.

Most of the folks we see coming into the world of cycling are coming back into it.  They are adults, who haven’t ridden in a long time.  (Likely this applies to you, loyal reader.)  It is a lot of fun to see the smiles show up on faces.  It is great to watch someone catch fire and really get into this stuff.  But sadly, a lot of folks drop back out after a couple of years.

The pattern is fairly predictable.  The first bike.  The next (and better) bike.  Doing some rides.  Joining in on a lot of rides.  Exploring potentials.  Increasing fitness.  And then, gradually, drifting away.

We all have a lot of things that demand.  There are job stresses, family commitments, you name it.  If we have allowed cycling to become another job, to become in some way obligatory, then our days are numbered.

Now here’s the cure, and it’s simple.  At least once a week, maybe twice, go for a ride with no rules.  That’s right.  No “training objectives.”  No particular purpose.  Just go out and have some fun.  Ride fast if it pleases you.  Ride slow and look at stuff.  Rip down some long hills.  Stop when and where you want to.  Go out with friends and just play.  Or go out alone and do the same.

Remember why you ride.  Remember, It’s supposed to be FUN!

Utility Cycling ~~ Stuff You Can Do on a Bike

Take a bicycle.  Any working bicycle.  Just as it is.  It can take you places.  That’s its primary function.  And that is a valuable, good, and worthy thing.  But we humans also tend to want to carry stuff with us as we move about.  This means, to really use a bicycle, it needs to take us places, and to carry stuff.

Small stuff isn’t a problem.  It can go in pockets.  But larger, or heavier stuff starts to require more infrastructure than the basic, unadorned bicycle has.

Let me illustrate a problem.  A young lady I know was going of to college for the first time.  I’d trained her.  I taught her to ride in traffic, to get from place to place safely, and to use the bike as more than a pleasure and fitness tool.  She took a bike to campus with her.  Almost immediately she found a good sound use for it.  The bookstore was way the hell and gone away from where she was quartered.  She rode the bike there, and bought her first semester’s load of books.  The double armload went into two large plastic bags.

There was no place on the bike for these bags, and the lady in question did not have a back pack.  She draped the bags over her wrists, one on each side to balance the load, and mounted the bike.  She managed to get going, but the first turn brought her down.  The bags swung independently of the bike, and one of them went into the spokes of the front wheel.  Result?  Some road rash, and two nicely sprained wrists.

This particular lady solved that problem by using a backpack.  There are other solutions.

Three strategies for Carrying “Stuff”

Racks: With a rear rack on your bike, and panniers on the rack,  it’s possible to carry an amazing amount of varied stuff.

Utility Trailer:  There are a variety of these things on the market.  They can be uncoupled from the bike when faster and lighter riding is desired.  They allow for more bulky loads.  They can usually carry more weight than the rack and panniers approach.

Back Packs and Messenger Bags:  Like the trailer, you don’t have to carry these all the time.  The drawback is that you have to support the weight as well as supply the power to move it.

And one more idea:  If you are really getting into hauling stuff, you might just want to investigate portuer bikes or “heavy haulers.”  (I’ll write more in this in the near futre, along with examples.

Things I’ve managed to transport with a bike:

Two 50 pound bags of lawn fertilizer

20 paver flags and 20 each eight foot 4X4s (multiple trips with a trailer)

One large window air conditioner

SAG support load:  One cooler, tool kit, multiple spare tires, first aid kit, and radio

A large dog

A squirming cat

Enough clothing to allow commuting for a week

Three large bags of laundry to and from a Laundromat

One automotive automatic transmission

A carburator, intake manifold, jack stands, hydraulic jack, and tool box

A medium child

Multiple adults (one at a time on a tandem)

Tent, sleeping bag, ground pad, bike tools, clothing, food, and cooking equipment

Enough stuff to self support a one week tour

Two large automotive tires, mounted on their wheels

Improbable things I’ve seen transported by bike:

A half dozen chicken coops with live chickens

A live Poland-china sow

A spinet piano

Two adults, two children, and a dog (on one bike; not a tendem!)

Three complete bicycles

One small motorcycle

A miniature “pop-up” camper suitable for sleeping two adults

A 20 foot extension ladder

A “long board” surf board

A sea kayak

An injury victim in a stretcher (trailered)

The rider’s prosthetic leg (while he was riding one-legged)

Thursday Thoughts ~~ Bike Month

(See the post from 5/3/10 for Audax 200K details)

This is a vision of the world.  Imagine, more bikes than cars on the roads.  Imagine, Interstate type highways, limited access indeed, but in a different way.  Imagine that these interstates are closed to cars, and are for bikes only.  Try to picture our cities as quiet and clean, with well ordered processions of bicycles and pedestrians moving along greenways.

Picture a nation in which the majority of the population is fit and healthy.  Can you see a nation in which the typical senior thinks of a 100 mile ride as a good day on the bike.  For that matter, what if the typical young teen thought the same thing?

How would our world look if we didn’t squander a huge amount of our income on rapidly depreciating automobiles, and the support of a huge infrastructure to serve them?  What if we stopped subsidizing middle eastern potentates?  What if the average private car or truck lasted 15 to 20 years, because it was only driven about 3500 miles a year?

What would this world look like?  What would it take to make it possible?  What if our recreation and fitness were also our primary means of travel?

Is this a fantasy?  Can this dream come true.

Please think about it.

Friday Follies ~~ Long Ride to Nowhere

NOTE:  By now some or most of you are aware of the “doings” at Bicycles Unlimited.  I’m not ready to comment on that yet.  Look for something in this coming Monday’s post.  As always, thank you for your love and support. 

S.

It’s no secret; I am enamored of the idea of riding a bike.  I draw a particular satisfaction from combining the joy of riding with a purpose.  If my ride has a practical application, a grocery run, a trip to the Post Office, a bank trip, going to a meeting, some utilitarian function, it seems even better to me.

That said, one of the questions all cyclists get asked a lot is,  “Where are you going?”  I often answer, “Nowhere.”  It’s the literal truth.  Most rides start and end in the same place, so in effect, they don’t go anywhere.  This would be especially true of “hamster bike” rides.  I’m referring to riding trainers or rollers.  (Talk about going nowhere!)

The very first time Tom attempted to do some cycle touring was, by all practical measures, a disaster.  He didn’t really know much about cycle-touring, other than the fact of its existence.  He knew people loaded up the stuff they needed on a bike and then rode off somewhere.  Kind of like a vacation, but without the car.

Richmond Virginia was a good starting place, because that was where Tom was.  He picked a destination that intrigued him.  Two destinations stood out.  One was Mount Rushmore, and the other was the Grand Canyon.  The Dakotas seemed a bit extreme, so Tom decided to go for the Grand Canyon.  For some reason, Arizona didn’t seem so far away.

Tom bought a rear rack for his bike.  Then, on the advice of some folks at the bike shop, he bought a front rack and a set of front panniers.  Tom had done some camping, so he thought he had a good idea of what to pack.  He spent some time planning his load, and scheduling a two week vacation.

On the appointed day, Tom left Richmond.  After a bit of fumbling around he managed to get out of the city and established a westward course on US-250.  The first flat occurred shortly after leaving Richmond behind.

By the end of the first day, Tom had almost made it to Charlottesville.  He’d traveled a bit more than 70 miles, and gotten a bit less than 60 from home.

Day two:  Tome got lost in Charlottesville.  Eventually he found US-250 on the west side of town.  Then there was the climb up Afton Mountain.  Tom was riding an honest Raleigh, with a total of ten available gears, none of them particularly low.  He resorted to pushing the 100 pound bike and load a lot.  By mid-afternoon, he had reached the summit of Afton Pass.  Thirty miles, and it had taken most of the day.  He decided to do the descent into Waynesboro.  He had his first crash on the way down the mountain.  It wasn’t a bad crash, but it shook him.  He walked the rest of the descent.  Tom camped that night, in a small grove of trees, about midway between Waynesboro and Staunton.

By the end of two weeks, Tom had made it to Albany, Ohio.  He had ridden (best guess) something like 500 miles, and managed to get about 360 miles away from home.  The bike was a wreck, and the rear wheel had just collapsed.  His gear was in tatters, and his money was running low.  Time to pack it in.  He gave the remains of the bike away, packed his gear up, and bought a bus ticket back to Richmond.

To this day, when asked about that trip, Tom will tell you,  “It was, possibly, the best tour I’ve ever done.  I didn’t really get anywhere, but I had a great time.  Once I stopped worrying about a schedule and just rode to see the world, it was great!  I learned more on that trip than on any other I’ve ever done.”

Sometimes, nowhere is the best possible place to ride to.

Thursday Thoughts ~~ Human Power

Definitions:

Horsepower:  1 hp = 550 foot pound second.  That’s the power necessary to raise 550 pounds to a height of one foot in one second.

1 hp = 746 watts.

We all like to think we’re pretty strong.  We cyclists and athletes are especially prone to this.  The truth is, we are, and we aren’t.  The average leaf blower has a higher sustained power output than most of us can manage.

And yet…

In the animal kingdom, humans are fairly puny.  A horse is faster.  A cheetah or even a tiger is much faster.  Any number of animals are stronger, bears, gorillas, even chimpanzees.  The average house cat can jump to a height five times greater than theirs.  (Imagine if the average human could jump 25 feet straight up!)  Eagles see farther, and more clearly.  Our teeth and claws are down right pathetic, and we don’t hear very well either.

And yet…

We humans have this gift.  We think, and make tools.  One of the most remarkable of the tools we have ever invented is the bicycle.  It amplifies us, as do all our tools.

No means of transportation ever invented equals the bicycle for power-efficiency.  None.

On almost any weekend, from mid-Spring through until mid-fall, literally thousands of fairly ordinary humans perform an astonishing feat.  We mount bicycles and ride 100 miles.  We do it in a day.  Actually, the slowest among us manage this feat in about eight hours.  Attempt to drive the typical horse that same distance, in that same time, and you end up with a dead horse.

The combination of the incredible bio-chemical efficiency of human muscle, and the amplifying properties of the bicycle make such a thing fairly common.

A human, in decent condition, can deliver a sustained power output of close to 200 watts.  That’s a bit more than one quarter of one horsepower.  And yet, with the bicycle, we can move!  We can cover distances that, only a short historical time ago, seemed magical.  We can do so, while carrying useful loads.

A typical cycle-tourist often covers close to 100 miles per day, while transporting 50 to 70 pounds of equipment.

So, what can we do with a bicycle?  Let your imagination ponder that one for a while.  What could you do with your bicycle?

Think about it.