Thursday, July 31, 2008

Biking July 31, 2008

Today was FUN. Before I get to the biking... here's the fun stuff: I took the day off from work and went to the Cubs game up in Milwaukee with some friends. We did some tailgating, grilling out, tossed the football around, and then got to go see the cubs SWEEP the brewers! It was a great game as Edmunds hit a solo homer early on and then at his next plate appearance he settled for a GRAND SLAM! It was great. That place was at least 50% Cubs fans.... which is why they call it Wrigley North.

Back to biking.... came home and the kiddo was driving my wife nuts so after we had some dinner, the two of us went on a bike ride. Of course i'm pulling her in the trailer using the Giant Sedona. We had time for a little longer cruise than some of our other rides in the past and we got to visit two of the elementary schools in the area. It was still a little hot out (80 F) and so I am hot and tired now. :)

Ride data: 6.1 miles, 36 minutes ride time, 10.16 mph avg speed


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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Biking July 29, 2008

Today was another short ride -- just down to CVS and back to pick up a Rx refill. Another 2.56 mile round-trip ride... I didn't keep track of how long it took me, and I still don't have a cycle-computer on the Trek, so I don't have any info on the speed, avg speed, time, or anything fun like that. I was working @ home today and usually when I do that, I keep working and working until its too late to go out riding. Today I went out around 7pm and it was already cloudy as a storm was moving in from the west.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Biking July 28, 2008

Two separate bike trips today after work. The first trip was a quick jaunt on the Trek down to CVS. I had to get a new passport photo. It was a speedy ride and I'm getting more and more comfortable riding the Trek. I did encounter a Hispanic woman walking on the paved MUP alongside of the road who refused to move to one side or the other to allow me to pass. Her kids saw me and kept saying something to her in Spanish... over and over, but she pretended like she could not hear them. Eventually I had to go off-road to pass her -- but the path was 4-5 feet above the surface of the road, so I ended up going down to the shoulder of the road -- a little bumpy ride on the narrow 700c tires. Luckily, there were no flats or anything like that from my cruise down the short grassy hill. Everything else went smoothly, including the photo at CVS. It only took about 5 minutes for the passport photo to be processed. It cost a buck or two more than it would have at Costco, but Costco has no bike rack so it would have cost me gas money to drive down there eating up the savings.

The second trip of the evening was on the Giant, pulling the kiddo in the Schwinn trailer around the neighborhood. This was a slow ride, about 20 minutes at an avg speed of 9.58mph -- a little over 3 miles, but it was getting dark and I didn't want the bugs to chow me up at the stop signs. :)

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Road Bike

I've been monitoring (really, 3 times a day or more) craigslist, looking for a good used road bike for about 5 weeks now. My search criteria has been simple: it needed to be a large frame (60-62 cm) for a good fit, it needed to be in ready-to-ride shape, mostly or totally rust-free, and it had to be a good name brand bike such as a Trek, Cannondale, Fuji, or something similar. I was not looking for a hybrid or any of the "new" Schwinn bikes, as they have pretty poor reviews since being taken over by Pacific Cycle.

About 2 weeks ago, I found a match: a used Trek 1000 that was going for $200-something bucks in the northwest side of the city. I emailed the guy about the bike but learned that he had sold it within 15 mins of listing it on craigslist. My response time was about 4 hours after it was posted, so I missed the boat on that one and learned a useful lesson about craigslist: the good stuff sells fast, when priced right.

Yesterday morning, I spotted a fresh (under 30 min old) listing for a 1987 Trek 400T -- its a touring road bike with the triple crank. Reynolds 531 lightweight steel tubing and built in the USA. The bike is older.... vintage, but it looks like its 5 years old or less. Paint job is very nice, only a couple of nicks and no rust. The chain rings and crank look like they've never seen dirt or bad weather. The guy bought it new in 87, rode it a little bit and then decided he would be happier riding a mountain bike and after that the bike sat. This year he replaced the tubes, tires, and put on new bar tape and then decided to sell it. His loss, my gain.

Here's a picture from the 1987 Trek brochure. The only difference is that it now has black bar tape instead of white. It also has a Blackburn rear rack installed, ready to load panniers on.



So this bike is pretty, its light (very light) and rides remarkably well. I'm used to fatty 26" tires on mountain bikes, so it took a couple of trips around the block to get used to these THIN 700x25 road tires. These things are high pressure too... 115 psi !! Anyway, the bike has a very speedy feel to it. Its very responsive to my pedaling and while I don't have the bike computer on this one (its on the Giant), i'm guessing that i'm averaging much higher speeds than I do with the Giant (even when i'm not pulling the trailer with the kiddo in it!)

Things to write about later: pedals (the strap pedals this came with are only half-functional and i'd prefer platform pedals or clipless... or maybe a hybrid that has a platform on one side and SPD connection on the flip side. The other thing is the bike computer. I don't want to move the one from my Giant, so i'm looking for another one for the Trek. I love my VDO on the Giant, so I figure I will get another for the road bike. But can I justify the price of the fancy VDO MC 1.0 with altimeter? :) More on this later...

I'll get some fresh pictures of the bike up here tomorrow or later this week.

Sunday Morning Ride

With the kiddo up early and the house feeling hot and humid, we decided to go for a morning bike ride. Actually it was her idea -- she brought it up -- but I was more than willing to hit the road. This was my 2nd time pulling her in the trailer and we went farther and I increased the avg speed to 8.98 mph for the 45 minute ride. We hit 15 mph once on a slight downhill, but I didn't want to go too fast pulling the trailer as I'm not really sure how fast its meant to go and I'm not sure how comfy the ride is back there at higher speeds. :)

Today we rode to the lake, watched some boats go by and then slowly made our way back home, taking the scenic route through the golf course neighborhood. People were walking and biking and I even saw one couple pulling a big hairy dog in a wagon and the wagon had an umbrella attached to shade the dog. Talking about riding in style! Speaking of dogs, I did see dog poop on the parkway in the golf course community so apparently dog walkers everywhere have no respect for other people's yards...

Saturday, July 26, 2008

First Trailer Ride

We took the first ride in the trailer today. Well actually... I rode the bike pulling the trailer and the kiddo rode in the trailer enjoying the scenery while enjoying a cool breeze. It was a good 4 mile ride, which is short, but it was getting dark as we didn't go until about 7 or 7:30pm.



Here she is with her spiffy purple helmet, ready to ride!

Bike Trailering

Yesterday I decided to get a bike trailer so that my daughter could ride along on some of my bike rides. Its not a Burley, as those things are just too expensive and even on craigslist the things go for over $200 bucks in used condition. Instead I got a Schwinn, which we all know is really Pacific Cycle, not the Schwinn of old. But it was either the Schwinn with an aluminum frame and steel spoke wheels, or an in-Step brand (also made by Pacific Cycle) that was a little smaller, had a steel frame, and plastic mag wheels. The Schwinn looks to be much higher quality, and the aluminum frame should make it a little lighter.

I'll put it together today and we'll go on the inaugural ride! Will report back later on the results and opinions. Oh, she also got a nice purple helmet with butterflies or something on it. She picked it out, of course.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

BRP Climb Index Data

So one of the websites I referenced yesterday also has a very good mile-by-mile climb data including climb distance, elevation, and climb index for both northbound and southbound routes on the parkway. That data can be found here.

Its now apparent that it would be much easier to ride from US-276 north towards Asheville, at least as far as the NC Arboretum if not a little further. I'll edit the post with some specific climb data later.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Biking the Blue Ridge Parkway

Know what would be cool? To bike the Blue Ridge Parkway. Well, at least part of it. The problem is, its in the mountains. I'm not really that excited about biking up hill... for half of the ride. What I really need to do is figure out a good stretch that can be biked in a single day that is mostly a downhill cruise with limited uphill miles. There has to be some stretch like that, and it would be better if it was somewhere between Asheville and Mt Pisgah, NC.

There are several books out there about biking the BRP such as:
There is also some info online about biking the BRP, including this bit of info, a mile-by-mile guide to the parkway. After some study, it seems that this shows the climb distance/climb height for various stretches along with climb index numbers, which I haven't yet figured out.

Looking at the area south of Asheville, I think the route from the NC Arboretum near mile marker 394 to US-276 near mile 412 would be a good route for a day trip -- 18 miles on the parkway.



I need to look closer at the climb index data for this route and see what kind of torture this would really be. Is it downhill? I'm thinking that it would be a climb up to Mt Pisgah, but then it drops down as you approach Graveyard Fields. But I really don't know. I need to get my folks to drive up to the parkway (they live nearby) and scope out the route for me. Too bad their car doesn't have an altimeter. :)

Biking July 22, 2008

While not really a long bike trip, we needed to get the dog some allergy meds from CVS as the ones we'd gotten him from walmart were not as good as the old ones. So yes, I made the long haul to CVS (1.3 miles) to pick up some dog allergy meds. For the curious, its the store-brand version of Tavist (but not the D version as dogs can't handle the decongestant... and they might turn the meds into illegal drugs and sell it to other dogs. or something.)

Total distance: 2.56 miles, avg speed 12.56 mph. Max sped reached: 23mph... on Ackman road as I approached the Randall road crossing and rushed to get the tail end of the green light to cross Randall.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

A break from biking

Today I'm firing up the weber again and will be smoking some pork. Slow-cooking meat over low heat is the best way to cook beef, pork, or chicken. Since I forgot to apply marinate/rub to the meat last night, I'm using a dry rub recipe that I found online:

INGREDIENTS:

One quarter cup dark brown sugar
Three tablespoons paprika
Two tablespoons ground black pepper
One tablespoon celery salt*
One tablespoon onion powder
Two teaspoons garlic powder
Two teaspoons mustard powder
One teaspoon ground cumin
One teaspoon ground cayenne

* I actually didn't have any celery salt, so I substituted some celery seed. I doubt that I'll be able to tell the difference. Quien sabe?

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Biking July 8, 2008

Today after work I went on a short ride before it got dark. I just rode to the Lake and back, with a side trip to a bike path near my subdivision. The Giant Sedona has been working flawlessly and I've only had to add air to the tires once since I bought it earlier in June.

On the bike path through my subdivision, I stopped to pull off a ripe blackberry from a bush alongside the trail. It was sweet and tasty, but I quickly got moving again as an entire army of mosquitoes came out of the bushes to attack me.

Total distance: 5.97 miles, total time 30 mins, 11.94 mph avg speed


Biking July 6, 2008

After my parents left and headed back to NC, I decided to take the Giant out on a little cruise. Most of my riding had been limited to 2 or 3 miles each way and I decided to go for a decade: 10 miles. I hit the road and went north until I was able to head east and cross town headed towards the McHenry County Prairie Trail, a 26 mile bike path running north/south through the county. When I got to the trail, my bike computer registered 4.0 miles so I decided to head back towards the house. I veered north and made my way to the shoreline of Crystal Lake, where i saw many families picnicing, grilling, and drinking beer at a private beach that is part of the homeowners' association on the south shore of the lake. From there, I headed south, through a city park, on a bike path, and then made my way back home.

Total distance: 10.5 miles, 54 minutes, 11.6 mph avg speed

Biking 2008

My old mountain bike was a dept-store special that pretty much sucked. Its heavy, gears don't shift worth a crap, and the thing just rusts hanging upside down in the garage. I decided to get back into riding and decided to visit the LBS to see what they could offer me instead of another crapper from Wal-Mart or something.

What I found, was the Giant Sedona (XL frame). Its not a mountain bike, and its not a hybrid either... its a "comfort mountain bike." That's code-word for a mountain bike for old people, I think. Well, i'm not old, but I must say that the ride on this thing is sweet! The suspension forks, the cushy saddle, and the 26" tires (they're not knobby, but they're wide) make for a smooth ride.