Wednesday post of the week--odds and ends

I happened onto a blog by my friend, Kirk Kandle, today. His latest experiment is to go "car-free." I suspect he will do well at this, as he has been an active commuter for a long time.

I know a few couples and a couple people who are car-free. I admire their tenacity. I admire their ability to make their lives such that they can do that. I admit to being still a bit addicted to owning a car, in that I use my small truck to haul stuff often enough, and far enough, that it's good to keep it for now.

I do, at least, go for being less car-dependent. I ride to work a lot, by many standards (although not as much as I'd prefer recently). I like the Clif Bar 2-mile challenge idea, and would like to see the concept used here with greater impact. As mentioned before, I bought a used kid trailer with the intent of using it to better meet this challenge. It's usually connected to the Raleigh these days, ready for action, as I prefer riding the Vanguard to Crestwood.

Most of the week has been get to work, work, get home in the rain, read, eat, sleep, get up and walk the dog, repeat. However, today I got to lead a lunch-time discussion on bicycle use in traffic. During this session, I met a woman who, with her husband, is car-free. I'm looking forward to meeting her husband, as he is another Ryan owner. He's in charge of sustainability efforts at U of L, and I can't tell you how excited I am that the University has such a position. I'm looking forward to all manner of future discussions with both of them. New friends!

When I got home from that, though, I learned that one of the springs for my garage door had broken. That door is heavy without those springs! By the time I got organized in my search for a replacement, the best source for them was closing for the day. Oh, well. The springs are about $25 each, and I should probably get two of them. I think I can charge them to the landlord, though, so it won't be too big a hit for the bank book. I even get to charge labor for the repair work against my rent (the board anchoring the spring snapped off when the spring recoiled into it after breaking). Nothing else in the garage seems to have been hurt, however. This is a good thing.

Odd and ends time:

Early last week, I learned that a chap on one of the kilt forums I'm on was to be in town. Jenn and I met Keith at a nearby brewery's restaurant, and enjoyed a couple of tasty local products along with our friendly conversation. His work will bring him to town from time to time, so we'll get to see more of each other.

David is getting ready to do the Ride to Conquer Cancer this weekend. I wish I had some money to toss in the pot, but I'm tapped out these days. I'll have to settle for putting some good mojo on his bike for him, so that he can ride without worrying about mechanical issues.

The big bicycle-biz trade show, Interbike, is going on now. Bob is there, getting information on all the latest and greatest stuff. Maybe I'll go next year. I went in 2001, right after the WTC disaster. It was in Vegas, and Vegas is a place I'd just as soon not visit, but the show can be pretty cool.

Playing catch-up

Taking a break from doing some catch-up work around the house today. Lots to do, so I won't type much (or maybe I will).

A post on a list server I watch mentioned Copenhagenize.com, a blog that has a lot of good reading in it. Needless to say, it will be on my watch list for a while.

An anonymous response to one blog entry included the gem: "...I came to realize that it is the attitude and the motor that moves the bike forward, and that obstacles are there to be overcome."

This blog entry has some poster ideas worth considering. I'm sure that many of the motorists' lobbying efforts to reduce bicycle traffic stem from "Traffic safety" messages similar to those cited in this entry. I'm also convinced that to truly do something to improve the safety of our roadways, we need to address the deeper problem--inattentive or scofflaw drivers of motor vehicles and the law enforcement process that allow them to continue--rather than the perceived threat to manic motion of a bicycle in the roadway. David Crowell linked to Motor Mania, a video done by Walt Disney some sixty years ago in his blog several months back. I see elements of that in myself at times, and it's one of the reasons I prefer riding--I don't especially like who I become when I'm driving.

Oh, well, back to the chores.

We did it!

Jenn got to ride her first century over the weekend, and a challenging first century it was!

Yep, the Old Kentucky Home Tour's Pottershop Century!

The bike was great--thanks again to Bill and Kate for letting us borrow it for this event!

As the morning progressed, the buzz had gotten around that Jenn and I were going for her first century ride. By the time we got to the fifty mile point, also the decision point for doing the century instead of the seventy-mile option, Jenn was pumped up and raring to go!

Everyone who rides the OKHT knows of Pottershop Road. Duc Do provided this entry in his list of one hundred (or so) hills in the area. Pottershop Road features three climbs of note (along with several smaller acclivities) to make for a challenging bit of work ninety-five miles into a century. The first averages thirteen-something percent grade for a third of a mile, and it has a relative easy spot in the middle of it. There is a lot of chip-seal road repair on Pottershop Road, which despite its appearances, is fairly stable (albeit worse than sandpaper if one falls on it). A few feet beyond the first patch of chip-seal, my legs cramped, forcing a halt to our first attempt. We sat out the cramps, turned the bike around, and rode back down to the stop sign to try again. Second try was successful, riding (for me, at least) on the verge of leg cramps much of the time. Lowest speeds were in the three miles an hour range, so we got to work not only on keeping it moving, but balancing at that speed.

Much fun was had at the club's rest stop at the top of that first hill, when Jenn and I stopped and she jumped off the bike on her adrenaline-fueled excitement. I stayed on the bike and rested a moment, knowing I was going to need a lot more power to get over the rest of the climbs. Folks thought I was exhausted, and I was certainly tired.

Carl and Sandy Davis, who were staffing the rest stop, had a special treat for us at the stop. Carl opened a bottle of wine to celebrate that Jenn and I were (fairly) newly married, and that part of our honeymoon involved riding Jenn's first century on the OKHT. We didn't drink much--just enough to taste it and celebrate, but it was quite thoughtful of them! Pictures were taken, bottles were refilled, and down that hill we went, looking forward to the several more small climbs and two major ones remaining.

On the last one of the major pitches, our lowest observed speed was two-point-eight miles an hour. It's a little challenging doing a near-track-stand on a tandem, anyway, but at full power to boot? Wow.

Total time for the century was about ten hours. Ride time was about seven hours. Before reaching Pottershop Road, our average speed was about 14.2, down from a high of 14.7 at some point in the day. Our final average rolling speed was something like 13.7 miles an hour, giving an idea of how slow we were on Pottershop Road.

The word got around, though, and Jenn earned lots of props for doing Pottershop as her first century, and we got some kudos (and not a few "are you nuts?" comments) for riding that one on a recumbent tandem.

With all that excitement, I was tired on Sunday. It took me almost thirty miles to loosen up and be able to ride with anything approaching power. It was easy enough to get things rolling when going downhill or on fairly level ground. However, my climbing just flat stunk--my legs simply didn't want to work on anything above a 4% grade.

Oh, well. Off to work. Maybe I'll have more to say later...

Another Fried-day post

Today is 11 September, 2009. It has been eight years since an event that will be a landmark in our psyche for generations to come--the falling of the World Trade Center towers. Much as my parents' generation can to this day remember where they were when they learned of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, I will remember where I was when I learned that hijackers had flown aircraft into the Trade Center Towers.

Indeed, I remember many things in terms of "before" and "soon after" the WTC disaster.


In the last ten days, Jenn and I have ridden more than 125 miles on the tandem. We are preparing to ride the Old Kentucky Home Tour this weekend. Indeed, I should already be in bed asleep. I'm apparently waiting for the sister of my stepdaughters' father to arrive on a social call. It's 2300 hours as I type this, and I was under the impression that she'd arrive some time ago. Oh, well, it's only sleep. My gear is mostly packed, aside from things I need tonight that I must pack tomorrow morning. I've discussed the time line for the morning. We'll see how that goes.

At any rate, over the holiday weekend, we got to log more than a hundred miles on the tandem, in a variety of situations. Saturday evening was "country riding" time--we rode the LBC ride out of Bluegrass Bicycle for 25 or so miles, then rode north out Glenarm Road to Hall's Hill Road for some hill practice of our own (climbing Old Zaring's narrow section is great practice). That was good for a total of about forty miles. On Sunday, we rode the LBC afternoon 25-miler, which gave us some practice at stoplights and some time at steady-state motoring along on River Road. Monday morning, we rode to the Mayor's Hike and Bike event, and got some practice at riding on wet roads in rain. The rain stopped soon enough that the event itself was under clear skies, and a good time was had by almost all. After the ride, we rode home, had lunch, then rode out to Lyndon to help with rider packet preparation for this weekend's Old Kentucky Home Tour.

Our plans for OKHT are to ride the seventy-some mile route, deciding at some point whether we are up to riding the century route, and hoping to do so. I am looking forward to that. It would be Jenn's first century ride, and it's a challenging first century route for anyone. It should be a bit easier for her on the tandem. I don't know whether it will be harder on me or easier. I'm sure my average speed will be down a bit from my average speed on my Strada, but I expect I'll have a great time anyway.

Late in March, Jenn proposed to me. The original plan was for us to marry on 9 September, the day before yesterday. Other events prompted a change of plans, and we married on 17 July. We chose to recognize 9 September in our own way, sitting under a neat tree in George Rogers Clark Park for a while and exchanging rings that are indeed ours, not borrowed from each other or whomever. My ring is a size 14...

And the ride to and from the park was good for another eighteen or twenty miles.

I'm settling into the new job duties--it's sort-of official, now, that I'm the Service Manager at Bluegrass Bicycle! I'm sure things will take all sorts of turns and twists (or is that twists and turns?) as we decide what my responsibilities are and how I will discharge my duties (and delegate stuff).

And, tandem preparation goes on apace. After a thorough drivetrain tuning Sunday morning, Jenn and I took it out to see a bit of the Ironman competition and shake out the bike a bit. We rode something like thirty miles, mostly at a fairly relaxed pace, and had NONE of the shifting problems I'd had Saturday. We even got the front computer calibrated correctly (I think--I'm going to check it at least once more in the next few days). We'll have to see how the rear computer calibration compares to the front one, and adjust it accordingly, of course. I have new brake pads for the bike, as the owner mentioned he'd like for the brakes to be quieter and I've learned of a pad that may be quieter AND have better stopping power (always a good thing to have that latter one), compared to what is on the bike now. The current pads are not terribly noisy at the moment, but I had done some adjusting to their positioning before riding the bike the other day, and I don't know how they were with the owner.

He and I talked of the kickstand that is made for the bike, but we will likely hold off on getting that--it's pricey, and the lack of it doesn't hurt how the bike rides.

I've started riding to work again. Before riding home Tuesday, I spoke with Jenn, and since she was still at her workplace, offered to ride by there and ride home with her. It was a slight detour for me, as opposed to a ride in the opposite direction from home as it had been with my last job, so it was a good thing. I like riding with her, whether we are on singles or on a tandem. Good thing, considering we're married! ;-)

Lots of cycling-related undercurrents afoot, too: I'm now on the city's "E-Team" for bicycle education, and will be working on helping create a Bike Ambassador program in the coming months.