Howdy all,
Well it has been a while and I totally forgot about my Bike Blog. I have (looking back) missed quite a few events that could have been good to post. Like getting my first case of beer home safely on my bicycle :p

Shopping at Wholefoods

 

As I have now passed the one year mark for giving up on using the car everyday, I can safely say "Who needs a Car". Giving it up completely is not really an option, it's just to handy for what a car is good for, emergencies for one. So I don't get on a high horse about dropping cars from the face of the earth, but I will say we as Americans would do far better with millions less cars on the streets. You know, say one per household, would that be so bad? You look at the stats now days and I'm sure the average number of cars per household looks like the number of kids 2.5 per LOL

 

Brooks B-17 Classic

 

I've made a few improvements to my bike over the past couple years. First big change was the Brooks B-17, I love this seat. My local shop warned me about the break in period and I would not be scare off, so I got it anyway. With the amount of riding I was doing now the break in period was very short and I never really had any "pain in D seat" issues. I still have this seat and if I do get another seat it will be another Brooks.

 

 

So for this post I will wrap it up and get on to the next chapter on my bike soon :)

 

Till than I will see you next time.

Happy New Year ALL!!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year, I know we are having a great day, hope yours is safe and with loved ones :)

My 9-11 Millerton Lake bike ride

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W98I2T6qz8I

Today I wanted to do a ride I had not done yet (yes there are lots around here still). As today being 9-11 and all I wanted to also reflect on the past years, where I was and where I'm going next. We all have turning points we want to remember and keep fresh in mind so we keep going the right direction. For me it's getting back on my bike after a long sedentary lifestyle that put my health at great risk. Now that I changed many of my habits I am feeling better and loosing weight. I want to remember how bad it was so I can be sure I always go forward and continue to improve my life :)

I took this video of my arrival at Millerton Country Store just as they closed lol I was able to get a pack of munchies for the return ride :) a single apple was just not enough, and I'm not interested in the power bars that are sold nowadays.

I found the route from a blog post by Cycle Path bike shop (see link on the right). This sure is a popular ride route as I saw alot of "trash" along the route that only other cyclists could have dropped. Shredded tubes and air canisters here and there, as well as empty "Gel" energy packs, things that really should be policed up if we want to keep a reasonable reputation with the areas...

One of the hazards I never thought of came in the form of "road kill"... fresh... and passing cars, glad I didn't get and of that spray...

All in all it was a great ride, beautiful country side and it was not overly hot when I hit the hills.

First ride to work...

This past Sunday I was given the opportunity to ether miss work or ride like crazy and get there via bicycle... I couldn't use the car and I found out at the last possible minute... Anyway I slapped my gear in the pannier, suited up and checked my route.

Now I started really liking a new feature on Google Maps, it features a button to adjust your route to known bicycle lanes and such. So you do everything you usually do to get the route you need but than click the bicycle icon and poof :) Now I know this is new and bound to have bugs in the system... but Sunday was not the I needed to iron out bugs :( On a few turns I mixed up directions (easy to do when turning every block or so) as well as the non-existent bike lanes on a route clearly posted as a bike route!!! Ya that was fun...

So aside from getting lost a few times and sweating out close calls on very narrow lanes, I made it to work, albeit a couple hours late... remember I was getting in the car at the last possible minute... Work is also in the next town away, 20 miles as the crow flies, 26 by car, and who knows how many miles I ended up riding trying to hurry to work...

I took this pic, and more, while on one of the various farm stretches on my way, really nice views that blur by while in a car. Even though I was not expecting this ride I did enjoy it and the view, plus I didn't get sunburned like I was sure I would :p

After work, 11pm, I chose to ride home as I was still feeling pretty good and was still on a high from the days ride. I find I feel better and have a great outlook when I ride, so I think I'll keep it up :p Anyway I found out just how dark a moonless night on a HWY threw the farms really gets... I ride in the city at night all the time and don't think about the dark much at all... Not so out in the farm lands LOL My light barely shows the lane strip on my left, I could see NOTHING else. When I road crossed I was blind, my white stripe was gone and I could see nothing till I reach the other side, hoping I was close to the right spot and not heading for the irrigation ditch, that was full of water for the farm lands around me... Ya that was a bit more exciting than I was interested in LOL. I'm also glad I was feeling up for the few gang areas I went threw, just picked up the cadence a bit and just plowed threw... No issues at all and I was glad for that as I really didn't want to deal with that at all. Once over the freeway and railroad tracks I was in familiar territory and was soon back home. It only took 2 hours to get home and I was spinning an easy cadence that left me still feeling good.

I ended up being on my bike going to and from work longer than I was actually at work lol...

Looking Forward

As I get more and more into touring I find I want to do at least one BIG ride before to long. But I have serious long term bills that keep me tethered to a rather restrictive work schedule. So anything short winning the lottery is going to push back any plans I have by a fairly large margin. But I'm not willing to give in just yet...

As I grew up with my mother and sister, we traveled allot. My mother had summers off and we always took a long trip SOMEWHERE... Ever sense I have been on my own I have moved every few years, sometimes across the country depending on the job. But now I've become somewhat sedentary. The feeling of getting out in the world and experiencing it again has become something I'm having a hard time putting off. I just watched "Long Road North" again and I'm filled with wanderlust like you cannot believe.

Next year I have a small trip planned and I'm putting allot of my energies into that for the time being. But it is a very restrictive location and MUCH planning is needed, something I'm not that used to. So it's a learning process as well, just hope it all goes to plan lol...

I wonder if my mother would get a kick out of the documentary or not.. She's still got the wanderlust and is just as tied down as I am at this time...

Great Ride Saturday

Well Saturday (my only day off lately) I got the family out for a ride that kept going for a while :) While we where at a local bike shop http://www.cyclepathbicycles.net/ we, my wife and kid, decided to keep riding but also to get a few errands done at the same time. One such errand was to stop at a sushi place that's on the way "Sushi N Pop" ya the name and it's location, across from FSU, was a bit risky but after eating there 4 times now, we are pleased with the place. It's great to share a roll during the ride and not get to full. We than moved on and looked at a few items we wanted to replace around the house and as it was getting dark headed home for the day. All in all we only traveled around 15 to 20 miles it was a great day of riding with the family :)

Less Car Traffic...

This is kind of a rant or gripe entry, sorry...

I grew up riding a bicycle. I worked on them myself and was able to salvage parts to keep me going. When I got a drivers licence (later in life compared to most) I stopped riding nearly as much. As the years passed I didn't ride at all, caught up in the Southern California Car Culture as most young men do. But I never really got into cars or in my case trucks, OLD trucks, the same way I did in my early life with bicycles. It was almost 20 years before I got onto another bike, and it was after my truck broke down in Anchorage, AK.. Walking down the street, having dropped off the vehicle at the shop, I walked into a bike shop just to look around, telling myself if i saw a bike that fit me well under $75 (all I had at the time) I get it... First thing I see when I open the door is a "Parts Bike" with a $50 tag on it... DOH!! So I bought it and rode it all over the place... Had I mentioned it has been around 20 years sense I rode a bike?? Oh ya I was in deep doo doo and in just as great of PAIN, everything hurt lol...

But I was happy and feeling good (just don't ask my muscles or seat...). While it was a similar feeling to riding my Harley all over AK, it was not quite the same thing. I held onto that bike for many years riding once in a while, still had not gotten fully into it yet. That would happen when I was in Culinary school. An awakening on many levels came over me while I was attending that school. Cooking and what that means, Brewing and it's history, Awareness of our food and how it affects the world. All these things happened to me without me knowing what I was awakening. Soon after I started REALLY looking at my bicycle again. And decided I needed to upgrade to a more modern bike. That in it's self was when I really got back into bicycling for the sake of bicycling. I gifted my old bike to my sister as she was better situated to find a new home for it, she lives there and has for a long time so she knew more people than I did.

Now I ride any chance I get, even in the heat, and anyone that knows me can get their jaws off the floor... And we get to the rant part of my post... Cars... People... Bikes... Roads... Just a few days ago I read an article in the news about the trial and sentencing of a lady that sped threw a stop sign hitting a man on his bike and killing him. She got a few years probation and no jail time... Because of our Car Culture attitude in this country we have to bow to the all mighty car. Streets are widened to get more cars on them, not to increase safety, be it pedestrian or bicycle. I live in a large city and there are very few bike friendly roads here. When I do ride with traffic I spend more time watching the cars behind me than on where I'm going, because one of the cars behind me is looking to push me out of the way, even though I'm as far to the right as I can be and still peddle...

There are allot of groups out there trying to fix this problem. I whole hearted urge you to look at what you can do to lend a hand or just be aware of the roads around your town. Are they safe to let your kids ride their bicycles on? Would you feel safe walking down the same roads? In todays economy I makes sense to get the bike out and ride those short trips to the store, work, or the movies. The amount of gas saved should be reward enough but your also getting exercise, something the Car Culture is severely lacking...

Well it's getting time for my ride, I ride at night as there are ALLOT less cars to worry about, plus it's a heck of allot cooler :)