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 ~~ Decades

Not too bad.  I’m looking at the close of my sixth decade on the planet.

It’s been fun.  The next six should be even better.  I’ve learned a few things along the way.

Count your change.

Tie your shoes.

Eat breakfast.

Wear sunscreen.

Smile a lot.

Laugh and be happy.

If there’s a choice, ride!

Dust keeps.

Sunsets are worth it.

Friends are hard to keep, but it’s well worth the effort.

Racing is good for you, you learn things in competition that you can not learn anywhere else. Just don’t take it too seriously.

There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

Sleep whenever you can.

Relax, it’s not all that important.

The real contest is called Life, and your real competition looks back at you in the bathroom mirror every morning.

Pump your tires and lube your chain.

Drink water, it’s good.

Don’t let your alligator mouth over drive your mocking bird ass.

You are unique and very worthwhile.

Attention to detail is crucial.

Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Maintain a proper balance in your life.  (When you figure this one out, come tell me.)

Every problem is an opportunity.  Try to avoid the insurmountable opportunities.

Don’t draw fire.  It annoys those around you.

Meetings are generally a waste of time.

Nothing of value is accomplished in a meeting that lasts more than twenty minutes.

Being “in control” is an illusion.  Try to enjoy the ride anyway.

Live like your car’s brakes are about to fail.  Ride like you don’t need brakes.

Do go ride on the beach.  (But do it on a rented bike!)

From time to time, give something that is precious to you to someone who needs it.

In the game of Life, don’t keep score.  It’s too short and too much fun for that.

The world can be a lonely place, be kind.

Good food is a blessing.

If you’re not hungry, you are eating too much.

Spend time alone regularly, and think!

Think first, then act.

Every so often, do something that scares you.

Never miss an opportunity to tell a friend you care.

You are going to get a flat tire.

Flats happen at the worst times.

Bad times lead to good times.

Experience and wisdom help you avoid strife and danger.  Strife and danger are required to gain experience.  Who designed this system?

When in doubt…. RIDE!

Why do it?

Why do we ride?  That’s an interesting question, and it gets asked a lot.  We ride for many reasons.  To get away.  To get somewhere else.  For fitness.  To train for something.  To help prolong a running carreer.  Because we can no longer run.  Because it does less damage than football.  It’s more interesting than golf.

All of those are good reasons.  But most of us started riding because it was fun.  It was, most likely sheer and simple joy that attracted us to the pastime of cycling in the first place.  It’s simply enjoyable to get on a bike and feel the wind in your face, to zoom down a hill, to get on the cranks and feel the rush of speed through a long flat.  It’s a blast.

We like to challenge ourselves.  (There’s a fun aspect to this, but it’s more subtle.)  We like to set a big goal, and then go for it.

We like to see our world.  Many of us are natural-born tourists.  We enjoy being able to look at our world.  To see it well, and savor it.  We crave new vistas.  We have “fiddle feet,” and we just simply need to take them on a dancing journey from time to time.

Then there is another discovery we make after we ride for a while.  Camaraderie.  We meet other like minded folks and enjoy their company.  There is a definite social side to our sport.

And all of that is the reason for the Annual Audax 200K.  It’s fun.  It’s a long and challenging event.  It’s very sociable.  We’ll see a lot of terrain  and territory.  We’ll likely meet some smiling faces along the way.  We’ll share good times and good food.

As for the Solstice Celebration Ride  This is sort of a new variant of a very old idea.  Once upon a time, clear back in Saxon England, maps were scarce and not very reliable.  Besides most folks couldn’t read.  So, once or twice a year, the whole mob would make a trip around the parish, or town, makring the boundaries, and making sure all was well.  This was usually a late Winter, or early Spring occasion.

I’ve moved it to the start of Summer.  I’m sort of adopting the idea so that we will never be far from home, and we’ll have good riding all the way.  At the same time, we should get in some good night riding, at a time when the temperature won’t be cold.

Besides, after the Winter we’ve just endured, wouldn’t it be fun to ride through the Spring and formally (sort of) mark the beginning of Summer?

Let’s have some fun with this.

Summer Solstice Celebration Ride!

Date:  Monday, June 21, 2010

Time:  8:00 PM

Duration:  about 3 hours

Location:  Start/Finish at Bicycles Unlimited, Peachtree City

Requirements:  Helmets.  Dress for weather.  Good headlights, tail lights, reflective vest or sash, and reflective ankle bands.

The idea:  We’ll Ride around the outside of the City, “Beating the bounds.”  That is, we will circle the boundries of the city.  We will start with the sun in the sky, but we will ride into the night, on the shortest night of the year.  It’s good fun, and good luck.

Contest?  There are still three bikes up for grabs in The Great and Weird Road Dragon Bike Contest. Have you sent your entry in yet?  If not, scan back through this blog, find the questions and the entry info, and do it!  This offer ain't gonna last forever.

Let’s go Ride

The 45 Mile Audax Tune Up Ride is this coming Sunday.  Ride starts at 1:00.  We’ve put out plenty of info on this.  Plan to meet at Bicycles Unlimited.  Plan to ride Audax Style.  That means the group will stay together.

The ride will go rain or shine.  Prepare for the weather.  Expect some hills.  Let’s all go out do this thing.

A new Idea:  This is a new cyclist’s version of a very ancient tradition.  Let’s go out and do a night ride on the very beginning of Summer.  We’ll call this one a Summer Solstice Celebration Ride!

Date:  Monday, June 21, 2010

Time:  8:00 PM

Duration:  about 3 hours

Location:  Start/Finish at Bicycles Unlimited, Peachtree City

Requirements:  Helmets.  Dress for weather.  Good headlights, tail lights, reflective vest or sash, and reflective ankle bands.

The idea:  We’ll Ride around the outside of the City, “Beating the bounds.”  That is, we will circle the boundries of the city.  We will start with the sun in the sky, but we will ride into the night, on the shortest night of the year.  It’s good fun, and good luck.

Contest?  There are still three bikes up for grabs in The Great and Weird Road Dragon Bike Contest. Have you sent your entry in yet?

Audax Ride Preparations:

The 45 Mile Audax Tune Up Ride is this coming Sunday.  Ride starts at 1:00.

How do you prepare for a long ride?  And more specifically, how does one prepare for the Audax 200K?  Read on.

Ride ~ ~ LOTS

Equipment:

Clothing:  Comfort is paramount.  Don’t (as in Do Not!) do this ride in new shorts, new shoes, new gloves.  This is not the time or place to be testing, or “breaking in” new equipment.   Wear stuff you know and are very comfortable in.  It’s funny, that pair of shorts that felt great in the store, and pretty good on the short club ride, can be a torture device of medieval proportions on a long ride.

The bike:  It should go without saying that your bike should be in top notch condition.  When was the last time you had it under a mechanic’s hand?  If you hesitated in answering that last question, it’s time to get it done.  Inspect your tires, cables, brake pads, rims, chain, spokes, all the most likely problem areas.

Supporting equipment:  Does your bike fit?  Have you had your fit checked?  Check your cleats!  Take everything out of your emergency pack and inventory it.  Do you have the necessary stuff?  Is it fresh and in good condition?  It’s amazing how doing this will teach you things.  Like:  “Oh.  That tube has a hole in it.  I put it back in there after that flat last fall, and I always meant to replace it.”  Wouldn’t you really rather have this “Homer moment” in the privacy of your home, as opposed to at the side of the road?

• Sunscreen
• Spare Tube(s)
• Patch kit
• Rain jacket
• Food
• Cash
• Tire levers
• Multi-tool
• Emergency ID
• Cycle Computer (with fresh batteries?)

A quick word on getting bike work done:  If you’ve waited until now, you are going to have to exercise some patience.  Every shop in the area has a sudden backlog of work.  Nice weather tends to do this.  Expect to be without your bike for several days.  If you’ve been procrastinating, get it done now!  If the bike is rideable, do the 45 Mile Tune Up this weekend, and then get the bike into the shop!!  (NOTE:  This makes a great argument for having two serviceable bicycles, doesn’t it?)

You (the engine):  Are you gradually building time on the bike?  Are you getting adequate rest and recovery time?  (Remember, yardwork and household repairs do not count as rest.  They are cross training at best!)  Be sure to take a day or two off for lighter workouts, or complete rest before each of the Tune Ups and especially before the Audax 200K itself.

What if I don’t think I’m ready for the Tune Up?  The answer to that is do it anyway.  Likely, you will make it.  You may be in better shape than you think.  On the other hand, you just might learn something of value, while there is still time to correct it.

Above all else,  get as much saddle time in as possible, and enjoy the process.  Hope to see many of you this coming Sunday!

Friday Follies ~~ Sunburst (Cloudburst) Loop

It looked like a simple and challenging, but entirely doable ride.  We would start outside of Waynesville, N.C. and cuise the “rollers.”  Then, at the little wide spot in the road, called Curso, we’d turn and ride through the Sunburst Retreat.  From there we’d climb up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, turn north, and ride to the indersection with US-276.  A spectacular descent awaited on 276.  Then back through Cruso, and finally, a few “rollers” later, we’d be back at the cars.

It was a bright, sunny day in early July.  The forecast called for a slight rain chance, with highs near 80.  The sky was blue, and there were high drifting cotton ball clouds.  It looked good.  A 60ish mile ride, with some great climbing and descending.  Likely a perfect day.

I cautioned my daughter, “I would bring a ran jacket and helmet cover.  You never know what could happen above 5,000 feet.  There is no predicting the weather in the Southern Smokies.”  I mentioned similar warnings to the others in the party, and then took my own advice and stuffed a packable rain shell and cover in my pack.

The day started out cool, and traffic was a bit heavier than expected.  It was a Saturday, after all, and the beginning of the summer tourist season.  Lots of folk were headed up onto the Parkway for a day of sunny leisure.

Once we turned off the main road, at Cruso, we are almost alone.  It was quiet and delightful riding.  As soon as we crossed the lake at Sunburst, we started the strenuous climb toward the Parkway.  It would be ten miles of serious mountain climbing, with a break about six miles up at the spring at Little Boy Falls.

As we climbed I noticed that the clouds had shifted from “scattered” to “mostly.”  Shortly after our break at the spring, the sky looked overcast, but not too threatening.  That would change.

We made it to the Parkway intersection.  The sky was noticeably darker, and there was a hint of mist in the air.  Should we continue?  “Somebody call it,” my friend Guy Smalley said.  “I say go.”  His wife replied, and my daughter, in a show of 16 year old bravado, echoed the sentiment.  We hit the road and pressed northward.

Just as we rounded the first cove turn, the rain hit.  It was a short, hard squal.  I pulled on my jacket and cover, and looked to my daughter.  She looked back, and with that expression, I knew  the story.  She hadn’t brought rain gear.

We pushed on into what was then a steady light rain, with falling temps.  By the time we hit the halfway mark on the Parkway leg of our ride, it was pouring…  And it was getting cold!

Guy and his wife, the strongest riders in the group, made a decision, they would jump to their best “emergency cruise, and go ahead to get their truck and come back for the rest of us.

Almost as soon as the Guy and his wife rode off, the rain redoubled intensity, and the wind picked up, and the temperature dropped harder.  By that point motor vehicles were roaring along, as all the formerly happy picnickers were washed down off the mountains, perfect Saturday plans wrecked.  They weren’t happy, and the Blue Ridge Parkway is not wide.

What followed was the most miserable and tense eight miles in my entire cycling carrier.  My daughter was not riding well.  I’d placed her in front of me and could see that the rain and cold were taking a toll.  The traffic was relentless, and vicious.

After a nerve wracking eternity, we made it to the intersection.  The great thing about those Parkway intersections is almost all of them include and over/underpass.  That meant a bit of shelter from the storm.

I was getting seriously worried.  Guy should have been back, and my kid was chilling.  A friendly couple was sheltering under the bridge in their open jeep.  They had a couple of dogs.  The offered to let my daughter stay with them, and she snuggled in between the two large, smelly, but friendly and warm retrievers.

I took another look at the horrendous storm around us and made my decision.  I would descend alone, return to my truck, and head back up the mountain to retrieve my kid.  What followed that decision was high drama, and low comedy.

I was borderline hypothermic.  I was trembling so hard, that it was difficult to control the bike.  At the same time, I was positively driven to get down.  I was descending like a demon.  In the pouring rain.  In fairly heavy traffic.  Tourists.  They weren’t moving fast enough for me, so I started passing them.  Several times, I encountered a vehicle that was going to slowly for me, and was taking up too much room to allow a safe pass.  I would bang on the back of the vehicle with my fist.  The looks I got from drivers, as they moved over, and I shot past…

And an odd thing happened.  As I got to lower elevations, the rain slacked off, and gradually stopped.  The clouds thinned.  The temp came up.  By the time I got to my truck, I was riding on dry roads, under sunny skies.  I met Guy, just a couple of miles from where we’d parked.  He was on his way up the mountain to retrieve my daughter, his wife, and our other friend.  (It would later turn out that Guy’s wife didn’t need rescuing.)  So I proceeded to my truck and waited, drying off, and getting the heat going.  In good time, Guy returned with the other two drowned rats.

Over the years, I’ve returned to that area,a nd ridden there many times.  I’ve taken others up that loop.  Every time I’ve done that, I’ve encountered terrific rain storms.  I move we rename the loop.  Not “Sunburst,” but rather, “The Cloudburst Loop.”  It’s still worth riding.  Just go prepared.

Oh yeah.  One more thing.  It didn't rain at all in Waynesville that day.

Thursday Thoughts ~~ A new product

That’s right!  Act now and you can be the envy of everyone who rides in your group.

The WonderShift ™ is available now, in pre-release.

What the reviewers say: as “Left me speechless,”  and  “Too good for my bike.”  And  “This is likely to be banned by UCI.”  And “The device is surprisingly quiet, but my dog doesn’t like it, and barks furiously when it’s turned on.”

What is the WonderShift™ ?  It’s a revolutionary (really) new bicycle transmission.  It’s all carbon fiber, chainless, 36 speed, fully automatic, driveline.  The transmission is powered by a combination of space-age fuel cells and a small solar panel array.  The transmission fluid doesn’t leak much, and red is a good color for rear wheels anyway.

WonderShift™  can be retrofitted to existing bicycles.  The retrofit requires the installation of a WonderShift-compatible 600F rear wheel and tire, and some slight modifications to the frame.  Instructions are provided, but in short, you will need a hacksaw, a small torch, a grinder, pliers, a ball peen hammer, and a bit of patience.  With these simple tools, a complete amature can successfully install the WonderShift™  in a bit less than a week.

The benefits:  No more worrying about selecting the “right” gear.  Let WonderShift™ do the worrying for you.  You are guaranteed to be in a gear, and with the 6 X 6 =36 gear combinations, it’s very likely that it will be the absolutely correct gear for something.  Best of all, WonderShift™ itself weighs next to nothing!

Specifications:

6 X 6 = 36 transmission unit:  w = 0.25M, h = 0.17M, l = 0.42M  weight (dry) = 985gram.  Weight (wet) 2.2 kg

Solar panel:  w = 0.5 M,  h = 0.025 M, l = 0.75M  weight = 355gram

Fuel cell:  w = 0.10M, h = 0.20M, l = 0.25M  weight = 1.17 Kg.

Price:  $2,399.99

Act now!  For a limited introductory time period only, purchase a WonderShift™ kit and receive, absolutely free!  A pair of WonderPants™, the world’s only, bicycle-specific, power-assisted underwear!  Put some real power in your shorts with WonderPants™!

(Note:  WonderPants™ requires a 480 Amp Hour, sealed, gel-cell battery back, sold separately.)