tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-133950596445546182024-02-20T05:25:06.926-05:00The Recumbent QuantThe ramblings of an ex-high energy physicist.Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-79938844716520131342013-04-28T21:01:00.000-04:002013-05-07T15:32:03.209-04:00The Commutigami MantisSince my last entry two weeks ago, I've ridden the <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2013/03/introducing-cruzigami-mantis.html" target="_blank">Cruzigami Mantis</a> just over 125 miles (for more than 200 miles total). Since the weather has been cooperating (read: above freezing temperatures in the mornings), I have commuted for the first time this year. Using the <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2013/04/lots-of-nice-riding-or-winter-is.html" target="_blank">seatpost rack I showed last time</a>, I had no problem mounting my pannier in which held my work clothes (I did have to mount the pannier toward the end of the rack to avoid it hitting the rear brake. I could not tell any difference with the Mantis without the rack or with the rack and the pannier. And unlike most other folders, I clearly don't have a problem with my heels hitting the pannier. If I wanted to carry a lot more weight, I'd probably install a proper (supported) rack, but the seatpost rack has a weight limit of 22 lbs and that seems quite sufficient for my commuting needs.<br />
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In three days commuting, I rode just under 44 miles. Not bad considering I doubled the mileage I would have ridden if I had limited myself to the most direct <i>home-to-work-and-back</i> route (that would have been under 20 mile).<br />
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<i>The <strike>Commutigami</strike>, err.. Cruzigami Mantis with Pannier.</i></div>
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I also went out for several nice <i>fun</i> rides, including the ride below, where I managed my fastest ever time, a moving average of 15.1 mph for a ride of just under 600 feet of climbing and almost 11½ miles. This bike just flies.<br />
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Yesterday, I went out for a <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/304911946" target="_blank">nice two hour ride into New York state</a>. At about 7¾ miles, I'm about to reach the maximum elevation of my ride and I see two diamond frame riders quickly approaching in my mirror. I kicked it into high gear (both literally and figuratively) and gave it all I had. I managed to hold them off for just over a mile before they caught me (I could go a bit faster on the descents and they definitely had me beat on the climbs). Both were very friendly as they past. A mile later I pulled into a gas station to catch my breath just after the two other riders. I sat and talked with them for a few minutes and drank the Gatorade they bought for me. It was a very nice mid-ride pick-me up.<br />
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The weather this year has not been very conducive to riding (although the weather was a lot worse in other parts of the US, so I should be careful complaining). At this point last year, I had ridden over 630 miles, where I have just under 415 miles this year. On the plus side, I have a total elevation gain of over 25,000 feet where as I had under 20,000 feet last year, so I've done 25% more climbing in 30% less distance. I can tell I'm getting better at climbing. It still sucks, but it sucks a little bit left.<br />
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With the lower seat angle, I often sit up straight when I approach intersections to get a better view. One interesting thing that I've noticed is that how the steering on the Mantis changes drastically. The bike is much <i>twitchier.</i> A small part of this has to do with generally riding at lower speeds. But I think that most of it has to do with the fact that when I sit up, I move the center of mass of the system (me and the bike) quite a bit forward. This is a well known feature of short wheel base (SWB) recumbents and for the reason of the center of mass. But it is still interesting being able to feel the difference (I find the lower seat angle makes the Mantis feel very stable).Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-69685595096365809182013-04-14T19:27:00.000-04:002013-04-14T19:27:20.360-04:00Lots of Nice riding or Winter is Finally Over!Since my last entry two weeks ago, I've gotten out for just over 100 miles of riding (five rides on the <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2013/03/introducing-cruzigami-mantis.html" target="_blank">Cruzigami Mantis</a> and one on the Sofrider).<br />
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First, I ordered a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002G33YA2/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B002G33YA2&adid=0FNRK4C7FS1HXR6N1FXY&" target="_blank">new front derailleur pulley</a> for the Sofrider. When I removed the old one, I found out that it wasn't broken, but rather the cable had simply fallen off. The new one spun more easily, so I put it on. I also moved the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0029LKXPA/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B0029LKXPA&adid=05ER419VDCK68DCAWTNX&" target="_blank">N-Gear jump stop</a> down a bit.<br />
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The new front derailleur pulley above the jump stop.</div>
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When I had the Sofrider up on the stand, the chain was running a bit rough (as well as having evidence that the Mantis was faster than the Sofrider; see below), so I replaced it with a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CN6QA2/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B001CN6QA2&adid=0A6B093V65FHPHB70PF2&" target="_blank">KMC 8 speed chain</a> and while I was at it, I replaced the cassette with <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DTX3R0/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B005DTX3R0&adid=15XN3E4M8KBFTJ4T6ZCM&" target="_blank">Shimano HG41 8 speed cassette</a> as well. <br />
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I took the <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/297469063" target="_blank">Sofrider out for an 11½ mile jaunt</a> and found that it is still slower than the Mantis (for comparison, here's <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/294206366" target="_blank">a 14 mile Mantis ride</a> where the first 9½ miles are the same that where the 14 miles are completed in the same time as the 11 mile Sofrider ride). The drive train on the Sofrider is now quiet and runs well. The seat angle on the Sofrider is higher than on the Mantis (and therefore the Sofrider has more aerodynamic drag), but I believe the tires (and the tire liners) on the Sofrider is what's causing a lot of the difference as well. I'll probably probably try new tires to see how big an effect it is. Hopefully more soon.<br />
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The rest of the time, I've been riding the Mantis. I replaced the front tire with a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006W9GL5G/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B006W9GL5G&adid=02NBGZG27JTY5JQXM651&" target="_blank">Schwalbe Marathon Racer</a> (a nice enough tire, but a real *#$& to get on).<br />
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The Mantis feels very similar to the Sofrider (albeit faster). Last weekend, I went out for two different rides including <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/294946860" target="_blank">an (almost) 24 mile course</a> that I've recently done with my Sofrider where I averaged 1.8 mph faster on the Mantis (12.3 mph) than on my Sofrider (10.5 mph). The Mantis feels just as stable as the Sofrider and it doesn't suffer from its small wheels at all (either in terms of speed or stability).<br />
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On Wednesday, Kate wasn't tutoring and rain was expected the next couple days, so after putting the monkeys to bed, I checked the weather report to see what time the sun was setting and set out at 18:45. The ride started off brilliantly. I was climbing up one of my favorite hills when I realized I should have checked the weather report more carefully. I saw lightening a few miles ahead.<br />
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After reaching the top of the hill, I turned around and really started moving. For a couple miles, it looked as if I would outrun the storm. But, alas, that didn't happen. <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/296221998" target="_blank">I completed 9 miles with a moving average of 14.5 mph</a> (my fastest ever recorded average speed of an entire ride). I do wonder how fast I would have been if I hadn't been trying not to get wet; apparently a little motivation can go a long way.<br />
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The seat angle on the Mantis was already lower than on the Sofrider. But I wanted it lower still, so I bought a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0017K75B4/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B0017K75B4&adid=041W0N9SYH935V94MRC9&" target="_blank">layback seatpost</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CJVM46/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B001CJVM46&adid=0N6F74G4F8HZFXMXDTQS&" target="_blank">seatpost shim</a> and I successfully installed these yesterday morning.<br />
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The layback seat post and lower seat angle.</div>
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<i>The entire bike with the layback post and lower seat angle.</i></div>
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The seat angle is lower than I'd ever had it (and there's still more room for it to go lower still).<br />
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Although I could install a fully supported rack (as <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/09/new-toys-or-show-and-tell.html" target="_blank">I did on the Sofrider</a>), but I decided instead to get a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014UMU5S/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B0014UMU5S&adid=1PRXDBRQDBYA5JYV3VPA&" target="_blank">seatpost rack which allows panniers</a> instead. It has a quick release, so when I don't want it, it's easy enough to remove.<br />
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<i>The clamp-on rack that allows panniers.</i></div>
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<i>The rack from behind.</i></div>
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Yesterday morning, I went out for a quick 14 mile ride. With the angle it is, I'm thinking of making a neck rest (like <a href="http://cruzbike.com/silvio-headrest-nice-comfy-cheap" target="_blank">this homemade one for a Cruzbike Silvio</a>) and I'd almost certainly want to add it if I decide to go even lower. For most of my riding, I enjoy being even lower (less drag). At intersections, I often found it useful to sit up straight to get a better view.<br />
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Today I went for my first ever ride with the <a href="http://soundcyclists.com/" target="_blank">Sound Cyclist Bike Club</a> (or SCBC). The 28 mile ride (with an estimated average speed of 12.5 mph) started 4 miles away from my house and I decided to ride to it instead of driving.<br />
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For the most part, everything went as planned. I left with enough time so that if I got lost (which I almost did), I'd still get there in plenty of time. And that worked. We started off at 10:30 with a nice downhill to get things going. <br />
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One problem I have riding with DF (diamond frame - regular bicycles) is when I go out with a group that has the same average speed, our speed profiles don't match that well. Because I'm generally more aerodynamic, I go faster on the descents than most of them (and because of where I was in the pack, if they were coasting down a hill, I was often riding my brakes). Because I suck at climbing hills and the aerodynamic advantage is gone, the steeper the hill, the slower I climb. There were several points where we grouped and it wasn't until towards the end that I was really at the back of the pack. At somewhere around 22 miles in the group ride, I fell far enough behind that I must have missed a turn and at 23½ miles (28 miles total) reached a busy street that I was sure wasn't on the route. My GPS pointed me towards home and it was a fairly uneventful 3½ miles.<br />
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Over the ride with the group, I averaged 12.8 mph, so I did pretty well. I clearly still suck climbing hills, but as I've said before: <i>"Hills suck, go climb hills."</i> Sounds like I need to follow my own advice.<br />
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As of now, I have just over 100 miles on my <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2013/03/introducing-cruzigami-mantis.html" target="_blank">Cruzigami Mantis</a>. I set out to make a bike that works well and can fold or be packed. I've ridden stably up steep hills averaging at less than 3 mph and ridden down similar hills at 40 mph (ok... <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/297971989" target="_blank">39.9 mph</a>) . The Mantis is as stable as my bigger bike, as fast as (or actually a bit faster than) my bigger bike, but folds and should be packable to a much smaller size. I think it's fair to say it's a success.Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-79863895712692334632013-04-02T19:33:00.000-04:002013-04-03T15:25:32.087-04:00A Good WeekendThis last weekend was the first weekend I didn't have to work the holiday this year and we took good advantage of it. I got the trailer attached to Kate's bike and the trail-a-bike hooked up to my Sofrider and off we went. We did a nice 7½ mile ride around Rowayton (part of Norwalk). It was Kate's first ride of the year and we're off to a great start.<br />
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<i>Kate pulling the little monkey in the trailer.</i></div>
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<i>The big monkey and me. What a gorgeous day.</i></div>
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On Saturday I went out for my longest ride of the year (just shy of 24 miles with 1250 feet of climbing). I haven't been to New York by bike for a while and it was another gorgeous day. I've clearly lost some of my fitness over the winter, but it's not horrible.</div>
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On Sunday I went for another ride. I started off with a familiar route, but ended up exploring a lot of new territory. I was about 15 miles into the ride well until the pulley of the front derailleur of my Sofrider died.</div>
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I was able to get the derailleur shifted into the middle ring and made it home without further incident.</div>
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I rode just shy of 50 miles this weekend. This brings my year-to-date total up to 180 miles, more than a fifth of which is pulling one or more monkeys. I've ordered a new pulley (and today I received <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2013/03/first-ride-of-cruzigami-mantis.html">the new tire</a> for my <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2013/03/introducing-cruzigami-mantis.html">Cruzigami Mantis</a>). So, all-in-all, a very nice start to spring and riding this year.Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-48598663557532738002013-03-24T20:02:00.002-04:002013-03-24T20:07:28.222-04:00First Ride of the Cruzigami MantisWe got back Friday from Vermont and it was much warmer here in Connecticut. No snow on the ground. Saturday I tried to go out for my maiden voyage with the <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2013/03/introducing-cruzigami-mantis.html" target="_blank">Cruzigami Mantis</a>, but that wasn't meant to be. I hadn't done a great job of making sure everything was tight after unloading the bike from the car. I pulled into a drive way about half a block from my house to tighten things where I learned a new way to destroy a brake cable.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCrILy3pXsqSsjImz5JVaT6Kdl-I4EKj_6IbHmmBmQHeFygYGkbs_V1_sO6wNELPZS1sBMVSInl8LJ7Skj7qNtck_Bik4vj29mgx8tfY0Eo4sYCb37qLnveCbUII3mfMR5Qa___RBnymU/s1600/frontTriangle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCrILy3pXsqSsjImz5JVaT6Kdl-I4EKj_6IbHmmBmQHeFygYGkbs_V1_sO6wNELPZS1sBMVSInl8LJ7Skj7qNtck_Bik4vj29mgx8tfY0Eo4sYCb37qLnveCbUII3mfMR5Qa___RBnymU/s640/frontTriangle.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Front triangle. Red arrow points to the where I have the cables threaded and where I smooshed the rear brake cable.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5yAcfBu8dgOpWzoQjCrnBLNy33NPQp47HbZYMYBwEPxKw9ugG-JWmrgyBsT2D5bvOpTyZBTjcHICKWrAvZPSuXuWISeToHjdcEd-68E-ZX-QPBUNsEheFYr2GgtK4oBlhjskCzmWLfuM/s1359/IMAG0715.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5yAcfBu8dgOpWzoQjCrnBLNy33NPQp47HbZYMYBwEPxKw9ugG-JWmrgyBsT2D5bvOpTyZBTjcHICKWrAvZPSuXuWISeToHjdcEd-68E-ZX-QPBUNsEheFYr2GgtK4oBlhjskCzmWLfuM/s640/IMAG0715.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Close up shot of where I pointed to in above picture. Notice the silver bolt. When the triangle is not attached, it is possible for a cable to get in between the bolt and the wall and it will get smooshed if one is not paying attention.</i></div>
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I had removed the stem and the triangle of the front of the bike to tighten the Delta stem riser. When I put the front triangle back on, I wasn't paying attention and it got smooshed between the wall and the silver bolt above. The brake cables are lined with metal and when I crushed it, it grabbed hold of the brake cable, effectively freezing my rear brake.<br />
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This morning, I took the monkeys to the local REI and bought a new brake cable and housing as well as a shorter seat post (27.2 mm diameter for those with a Origami Mantis). I got the cable and seat post installed (lowering the seat angle somewhat) this afternoon, pumped the tires up to 100 PSI and went off for a ride.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="548" src="http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/288571483" width="465"></iframe></center>
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The ride went quite well; I am very pleased with how the bike rides. The bike feels very similar to my Cruzbike Sofrider - I can ride this one with no hands as well. I have the two bikes geared almost identically with the same pedals. I averaged just under 12 mph which is just a bit better than I've been doing recently on similar rides.<br />
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Towards the end of the ride, I heard a <i>thump-thump-thump</i> noise coming from the front. I could tell something was off with the front wheel, but I was close to home and made it there without incident. When I got home, I realized the front tire is not doing well at all.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLhxKzABcBXFqpgQqa5tPA7ri8slWuIzYXEI4EQCDhNIBUVDNNFBcPUGCmi8MwVUoLyPM3Rr9Qzl62FbdMnbTjrM-HdomJ7kgye0N55KEIPYqA6W4GRd6gzxJAKUD2SyQuePWoiURoxnA/s1359/IMAG0706.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLhxKzABcBXFqpgQqa5tPA7ri8slWuIzYXEI4EQCDhNIBUVDNNFBcPUGCmi8MwVUoLyPM3Rr9Qzl62FbdMnbTjrM-HdomJ7kgye0N55KEIPYqA6W4GRd6gzxJAKUD2SyQuePWoiURoxnA/s640/IMAG0706.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>Picture of where the tire is falling apart.</i></div>
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In one area, the casing of the tire is starting to separate from the base.<br />
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<i>Video of tire rotating. You can see the bulge in the tire (watch it periodically obscure the "Kool" on the brake pade. The bulge causes a <b>thump-thump</b> noise when riding.</i></div>
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As you can see from the above video, you can see a bulge when that area of the tire rotates around. I don't have an explanation except manufacturing defect (I rode less than 1 mile on the tire before today where it was inflated to 50 PSI). I'll report it to Schwalbe and see what they say.<br />
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A slightly disappointing end to my maiden voyage, although it would have been <b>a lot</b> worse if the tire had blown, so I think I'll consider myself lucky. I'm very pleased with how the bike came together and how it handles on the road.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3gzxc3nE8IDnr3_jTutd5xwBHsnAg9N1X0Qg5S-eoEWpZ06oXUSta2Wq5FKnkJa8Oy4DojbkInJ5IGIKV-lZ5XUzN8QBPhA7SZ6qE5-GyTa3aOKGJd_Qy7_Z5eHR1sS88h6ZSqdq0dD4/s1359/IMAG0713.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3gzxc3nE8IDnr3_jTutd5xwBHsnAg9N1X0Qg5S-eoEWpZ06oXUSta2Wq5FKnkJa8Oy4DojbkInJ5IGIKV-lZ5XUzN8QBPhA7SZ6qE5-GyTa3aOKGJd_Qy7_Z5eHR1sS88h6ZSqdq0dD4/s640/IMAG0713.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Me on the Cruzigami Mantis.</i></div>
Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-31585130755397925632013-03-21T16:19:00.000-04:002013-04-26T13:02:33.912-04:00Introducing the Cruzigami Mantis<div>
I have taken this week off and Kate, the monkeys and I went up to her parents house. I had been hoping to get some bicycle riding in, but we drove up during a blizzard and have gotten a foot of snow this week (it snowed in Connecticut, too). So I haven't gotten any bicycle riding in, but I did get to put the finishing touches on something I've been working on for the last few months.</div>
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I'd like to introduce the World's First (and currently only) Cruzigami Mantis - a folding, full-suspension recumbent moving bottom bracket (MBB) forward wheel drive (FWD) bicycle. The goal in building this bicycle was to (1) have a bicycle that can be packed into a single suitcase including wheels (hopefully more on this later) and (2) have this bike not compromise on the ride. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUQ6h6fn83UDAZaPuNIJaqRE1eTvlz5Phv-yzKRSR00pwi9ABQzNevkw3FmFYm0wZyOhVgx6kKsPi-nytmYYHK__TbGJ2weUthM93d765GZ731gAfaF9VrRS4VCViqA43M0r4VBoltlTM/s1359/IMAG0682.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUQ6h6fn83UDAZaPuNIJaqRE1eTvlz5Phv-yzKRSR00pwi9ABQzNevkw3FmFYm0wZyOhVgx6kKsPi-nytmYYHK__TbGJ2weUthM93d765GZ731gAfaF9VrRS4VCViqA43M0r4VBoltlTM/s640/IMAG0682.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The Cruzigami Mantis - After</i><br />
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<a href="http://cache.nebula.phx3.secureserver.net/obj/NEJDM0YyN0U3MDY5REM1MkU1Mjk6YTRhMWQzMTI4Mjk4MDkxNTNhMTRkZmNlNTYwNzU3ZjU=" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" src="http://cache.nebula.phx3.secureserver.net/obj/NEJDM0YyN0U3MDY5REM1MkU1Mjk6YTRhMWQzMTI4Mjk4MDkxNTNhMTRkZmNlNTYwNzU3ZjU=" width="640" /></a></div>
<i>The Origami Mantis - Before</i></div>
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This bike is a <a href="http://www.origamibicycles.com/Mantis.php" target="_blank">fully suspended folding Origami Mantis</a> bicycle converted into a FWD recumbent with a <a href="http://cruzbike.com/conversion-kit" target="_blank">Cruzbike conversion kit</a> (which includes both the seat and the front triangle). From the original bicycle, I kept the frame, the fork and the kick-stand (replacing everything else). I have plans to use original parts from the folding bike to completely rework a <a href="http://www.greenzonebikes.com/" target="_blank">Greenzone folding bicycle</a> that I rode into the ground.</div>
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For those who don't want to bother reading what I have below, here is a video:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lDNb2d1baZs" width="640"></iframe>
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The rear wheel is a used (former front wheel) Alexrimm with a Shimano Deore hub that I got used from <a href="http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/forumdisplay.php?f=10" target="_blank">'Bent Rider Online ad</a>. It came with the (slightly used) Primo Comet tires shown. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbBgZUCdstVcz2KFd9lDXiQ0KbYWV6yvHYsdgo1hKYQZLu5XpDUh6kW15fS2hJJs9CjjxOvA-OLl_5djQc4JWhAu0KwDAiazGhIiMKWdE1Zu1A4N3EeoW7u-EsXEmXTArzr6d9-DjIlzE/s1359/IMAG0684.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbBgZUCdstVcz2KFd9lDXiQ0KbYWV6yvHYsdgo1hKYQZLu5XpDUh6kW15fS2hJJs9CjjxOvA-OLl_5djQc4JWhAu0KwDAiazGhIiMKWdE1Zu1A4N3EeoW7u-EsXEmXTArzr6d9-DjIlzE/s640/IMAG0684.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The rear wheel and rear suspension. I removed a guard that was attached to protect the chainring when it was attached in it's original position.</i></div>
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I use <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0025TSZWO/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B0025TSZWO&adid=1ARPVCNG3BGKDVVJRD53&" target="_blank">Shimano Acera V-brakes</a> for both front and rear and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NUIHV6/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B000NUIHV6&adid=0VTMVD1883E9EHFMKA4V&" target="_blank">XLC alloy V-brake levers</a> mounted on a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000EHYC8K/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B000EHYC8K&adid=0B7DB0Q8QFEC1WZG8G7K&" target="_blank">Wald steel handlebars</a> attached using the same <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001C65VQY/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B001C65VQY&adid=15F2SXM809MW09WR3V73&" target="_blank">Dimension adjustable stem</a> I use on the Sofrider. A <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009R96YK/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B0009R96YK&adid=0DBBSK9KYJ31WJ188D74&" target="_blank">Mirricle bar-end mirror</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008L2PBXU/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B008L2PBXU&adid=1YCZQ8J7QZ5VW7GFV5XJ&" target="_blank">locking grips</a> finish off the cockpit. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmhNbW77N-3ywo8qvn7wRS69_rBfH2A54YNleyD8LUpD5a7E2tmQ9gdAtvokSpjGVl8tT2tx2o0H15jz1cLV1LnJVqYjL34Tb4PnalfRFBGvHRyaRJXrHEzWV_igr741GvZqC-CT9In4/s1359/IMAG0699.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmhNbW77N-3ywo8qvn7wRS69_rBfH2A54YNleyD8LUpD5a7E2tmQ9gdAtvokSpjGVl8tT2tx2o0H15jz1cLV1LnJVqYjL34Tb4PnalfRFBGvHRyaRJXrHEzWV_igr741GvZqC-CT9In4/s640/IMAG0699.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The handlebars with the XLC brakes, SRAM trigger shifters, and Mirricle mirror. You might also notice the Garmin 305 mount on the stem.</i></div>
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On the front brakes, I use <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0030KVB4G/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B0030KVB4G&adid=0GZTZH8RAJYHW7BM385M&" target="_blank">Kool Stop brake pads</a>. To keep <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_and_motorcycle_geometry#Trail" target="_blank">the trail</a> of the converted bicycle reasonable, the front fork is turned around when the kit is mounted.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGyT8XSc4VvJk5BgceIr_R5H8qLQ2H93iVrfDjUVgadmFZnECHfwyNCnA_gjRX4F0GhURfJuhm_80a31ObaxEf7MNXRiGkkL7vVZSkvwbYgqaZm3GbF92oHgIvUwI8fm00xHSIhYM1he4/s1359/IMAG0683.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGyT8XSc4VvJk5BgceIr_R5H8qLQ2H93iVrfDjUVgadmFZnECHfwyNCnA_gjRX4F0GhURfJuhm_80a31ObaxEf7MNXRiGkkL7vVZSkvwbYgqaZm3GbF92oHgIvUwI8fm00xHSIhYM1he4/s640/IMAG0683.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>The Koolstop pads with Shimano Acela brakes and Marathon Kojak tires.</i></div>
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The drivetrain is a FSA Gossamer triple crank which came with 50/39/30T rings where I replaced the 30T with a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GSSNAY/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B001GSSNAY&adid=1JB1VBXX3HC3G6ZANPPR&" target="_blank">Sugino 24T granny gear</a>. Like on my Sofrider, I use <a href="http://www.nashbar.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchDisplay?searchTerm=soho&catalogId=10052&cn1=&langId=-1&gast=soho&storeId=10053&URL=CatalogSearchResultView&ddkey=http:PBSearchTermAssociationsCmd" target="_blank">Nashbar Soho pedals</a> (one side clipless, one side platform). I use an <a href="http://www.rei.com/product/847058/sram-x9-3x10-top-pull-front-derailleur-low-clamp" target="_blank">SRAM X.9 (10 speed) front deraulleur</a> (I should use a 9 speed, but this <i>was </i>available).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rL2VhftOOCqHifenxU2eOWzE447qYp4TcI4TnYDbmDHfOqMfV-jnHIGQL71vS5kkn_-33AMNu6SUuTUAu8abUZbLHkk4RZuSri6JPXMDoGzTC-971Vk6b-qzECRuTuKKolbQDjDu7fI/s1359/IMAG0680.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rL2VhftOOCqHifenxU2eOWzE447qYp4TcI4TnYDbmDHfOqMfV-jnHIGQL71vS5kkn_-33AMNu6SUuTUAu8abUZbLHkk4RZuSri6JPXMDoGzTC-971Vk6b-qzECRuTuKKolbQDjDu7fI/s640/IMAG0680.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The FSA Gossamer triple crank with the Sugino granny gear, the SRAM X.9 front derailleur, and Nashbar Soho pedals.</i></div>
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The front wheel has a <a href="http://sheldonbrown.com/capreo/index.html" target="_blank">Capreo hub and a 9 speed 9T-26T cassette</a> (that I bought from another <a href="http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/forumdisplay.php?f=10" target="_blank">'Bent Rider Online ad</a>) shifted with an <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001FC9HRO/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B001FC9HRO&adid=01QRQZGZ07BVRTH3KZEK&" target="_blank">SRAM X.4 9 speed rear derailleur</a>. I use <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003RLCCT6/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B003RLCCT6&adid=0ZPCB982HGC13BN2GANP&" target="_blank">SRAM X.7 trigger shifters</a> for both front and rear derailleurs.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh7yD6at5SpAgoV9SMw1xRAe4s95xiMc8iM6NwP2jOaKWDHmtqCJM7TkGT0sYNutiGT6Yw0yz9XIWq63H7uoIvUQ-Vrls_q0dXAbN4Gvt6K_bDrjWiPUhYER7ZhV2FwjQJrJkbE4fJ46E/s1359/IMAG0679.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh7yD6at5SpAgoV9SMw1xRAe4s95xiMc8iM6NwP2jOaKWDHmtqCJM7TkGT0sYNutiGT6Yw0yz9XIWq63H7uoIvUQ-Vrls_q0dXAbN4Gvt6K_bDrjWiPUhYER7ZhV2FwjQJrJkbE4fJ46E/s640/IMAG0679.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The SRAM X.4 rear derailleur mounted on the Cruzbike conversion kit mounts. I haven't yet trimmed the shifter cables.</i></div>
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To allow the bicycle to still fold, I use wing-nuts to secure the two halves of the seat together and the bottom half of the seat is mounted such that it does not interfere with the bicycle fold.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrFwB3PNtDH5wposf0PZCz7gd-lJs91m5XmDVxsmba9ZKRbFBfCO84EDShViqj94cUHVb2JWFocwq6S79Bx6Dd0MeTtdT_f4hXjT1ShkfbFUv2B1konvezF3Gy4wFCJp863A_V5acy1A/s1359/IMAG0687.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrFwB3PNtDH5wposf0PZCz7gd-lJs91m5XmDVxsmba9ZKRbFBfCO84EDShViqj94cUHVb2JWFocwq6S79Bx6Dd0MeTtdT_f4hXjT1ShkfbFUv2B1konvezF3Gy4wFCJp863A_V5acy1A/s640/IMAG0687.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The seat is mounted on the front half of the frame and does not interfere with the folding of the bicycle. The seat pieces are attached with wing-nuts so that I cat attach them by hand.</i></div>
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<b>Cruzigami Mantis Gearing</b></div>
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The choice of the Capreo 9-26T cassette was chosen so that this <a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html?R0=24&R1=39&R2=50&C0=9&C1=10&C2=11&C3=13&C4=15&C5=17&C6=20&C7=23&C8=26&C9=999&C10=999&CAS=0&WI=36&CR=170&RT=1&ST=0&RPM=90&SRT=0&lRPM=75&hRMP=110&G=show&S=no&TITLE=Charles%20Plagers%20Cruzigami%20Mantis&HL=1" target="_blank">Cruzigami Mantis bicycle is geared</a> almost identically to <a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html?R0=22&R1=38&R2=48&C0=11&C1=13&C2=15&C3=18&C4=20&C5=24&C6=28&C7=32&C8=999&C9=999&C10=999&CAS=0&WI=20&CR=170&RT=1&ST=0&RPM=90&SRT=0&lRPM=75&hRMP=110&G=show&S=no&TITLE=Charles%20Plagers%20Cruzbike%20Sofrider&HL=1" target="_blank">my Cruzbike Sofrider</a>. The Mantis, with its 20" wheels is geared from 17.6 to 106 gear inches; the Sofrider and its 26" wheels, is geared from 16.8 to 107 gear inches (For reference: a 700c wheel with a 23mm tire and 50T chainring and 12T cog has 109 gear inches).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm0xkb9sUoEowQxPwsy3bmEygF6RhExNqZAK5PXATE9JwGahgc56ikkbhIVKQ9HDtv8tk_zS5cmwsw9XC82Yj_8yYTZr6FfnUwXfWkuOIJ1xAhV000Znwp9to9kl-_MbAOwZBc7tA_tP8/s1600/cruzigami-speeds2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm0xkb9sUoEowQxPwsy3bmEygF6RhExNqZAK5PXATE9JwGahgc56ikkbhIVKQ9HDtv8tk_zS5cmwsw9XC82Yj_8yYTZr6FfnUwXfWkuOIJ1xAhV000Znwp9to9kl-_MbAOwZBc7tA_tP8/s640/cruzigami-speeds2.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Cruzigami Mantis Gearing (with 20" wheels)- the <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;"><b>top (big ring)</b></span></span>, <b>middle (middle ring)</b> and <span style="color: red;"><b>bottom (granny gear)</b></span> speeds for a cadence between 75 to 110 RPM. Picture a snapshot of </i><a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html?R0=24&R1=39&R2=50&C0=9&C1=10&C2=11&C3=13&C4=15&C5=17&C6=20&C7=23&C8=26&C9=999&C10=999&CAS=0&WI=36&CR=170&RT=1&ST=0&RPM=90&SRT=0&lRPM=75&hRMP=110&G=show&S=no&TITLE=Charles%20Plagers%20Cruzigami%20Mantis&HL=1" target="_blank">Mike Sherman's gear page</a>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5SPwZyk-dxzHyseqe6ma2Nwvk5TTPfXnyjQLgaw87t7fVsuIUzDd2M3l1EikQ5fEol5XjiWjGpYc33kr3vtQzXTxDh7JB7dkKKlhYK_GvgWHYqkw13VC5jAqVoDjnUrGwJJsfgDU4myM/s1600/sofrider-speeds.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5SPwZyk-dxzHyseqe6ma2Nwvk5TTPfXnyjQLgaw87t7fVsuIUzDd2M3l1EikQ5fEol5XjiWjGpYc33kr3vtQzXTxDh7JB7dkKKlhYK_GvgWHYqkw13VC5jAqVoDjnUrGwJJsfgDU4myM/s640/sofrider-speeds.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Cruzbike Sofrider (with 26" wheels) - the <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;"><b>top (big ring)</b></span></span>, <b>middle (middle ring)</b> and <span style="color: red;"><b>bottom (granny gear)</b></span> speeds for a cadence between 75 to 110 RPM.</i></div>
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The gearing and the tires were chosen to give this bike a ride as similar to a big wheeled bike as possible.</div>
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As you can see, although the bike still folds, it isn't nearly as convenient as it was in its original form. The ultimate goal of this bicycle is to have it be packable (with the wheels) in a single airline-legal suitcase (hopefully more on this later).</div>
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Now that I finally have the bicycle assembled, now I'm just waiting for, well, roads that aren't completely covered in snow to try it out. Hopefully not too much longer and I'll be able to provide my first impressions of how it handles.</div>
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<b>Threadless Fork</b></div>
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Unlike most folders I've seen, the Origami Mantis comes with a threadless fork (like modern road bikes). As can be seen by the picture below, there is not a lot of stem sticking above the fork, so that it was difficult for the Cruzbike kit to grab a hold of it.. To solve this, I use <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FGYKWS/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B000FGYKWS&adid=17Z026XJHP8EWA2QX14Z&" target="_blank">Delta stem raiser</a> that both attaches to the star nut inside and grabs onto the fork. It's also works well in that I can remove the stem from the Cruzbike kit without having the fork fall off (will be useful for packing).</div>
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(It makes sense that the amount of the fork above the frame is so short because there is usually a foldable stem. It just isn't ideal for this application.)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPtmZ26PXO9eJUGafPnEaafKJ_ISljD8SIdtvseBtxuu313a7za7cGyyIevApciyE7Ri8UVu2D8n1GCZpbZUE6fC786CpjwU1m8seqCSHfgRagOF48BmJOS-dfzLdTz_Ya96Ieo7Wt0BY/s988/IMAG0566.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPtmZ26PXO9eJUGafPnEaafKJ_ISljD8SIdtvseBtxuu313a7za7cGyyIevApciyE7Ri8UVu2D8n1GCZpbZUE6fC786CpjwU1m8seqCSHfgRagOF48BmJOS-dfzLdTz_Ya96Ieo7Wt0BY/s640/IMAG0566.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Threadless fork of the Origami Mantis and a view of the star nut inside.</i></div>
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<b>Bike Folded:</b></div>
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Here are some pictures of the bike folded in the back of our mini-van. None of these are fantastic pictures, but they do (pretty much) show what's going on. Here is the complete bike except the seat back (and post) are removed.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeq5IpLshRwQpckLWiyJHnVSG11ie0kEYzgrexRsrnlvKGNFVsxRpfK3yGi675U8UDXs4VB7kYp1N7FYEPuRXVoLcF6XGX4dq9-Efq14EJvUtLjQvLtP6BS4MmQUZFkpeJloUth3xyn5A/s1359/IMAG0700.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeq5IpLshRwQpckLWiyJHnVSG11ie0kEYzgrexRsrnlvKGNFVsxRpfK3yGi675U8UDXs4VB7kYp1N7FYEPuRXVoLcF6XGX4dq9-Efq14EJvUtLjQvLtP6BS4MmQUZFkpeJloUth3xyn5A/s640/IMAG0700.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>Everything is folded except the stem.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirRUd-YiKlh80U4fPpUUYfm4IngxRfhTw8bEsvdbD_gkowHuaV5oGzIiQxAfKbqxvZb2DhTakqtcszoEoHWPeI1YSwG2FELgeZCNhFgAOztMVq7076LYtVl4XkLdYNIcYjgnsKjP-hU50/s1359/IMAG0701.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirRUd-YiKlh80U4fPpUUYfm4IngxRfhTw8bEsvdbD_gkowHuaV5oGzIiQxAfKbqxvZb2DhTakqtcszoEoHWPeI1YSwG2FELgeZCNhFgAOztMVq7076LYtVl4XkLdYNIcYjgnsKjP-hU50/s640/IMAG0701.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Side view</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg72gfVpOXZFftKiY1NDa0GX3YUSt4Z41DDP92oeoZmPM9E8LjvrDJhIGHINvBiusE42gSj0e_VLFV9_A5SUfWpQUqpUmR6wsLXx_AKFsBQcxsRhbE9EMkbq2bzKKwxcsqqtGkqWJCCKno/s1359/IMAG0702.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg72gfVpOXZFftKiY1NDa0GX3YUSt4Z41DDP92oeoZmPM9E8LjvrDJhIGHINvBiusE42gSj0e_VLFV9_A5SUfWpQUqpUmR6wsLXx_AKFsBQcxsRhbE9EMkbq2bzKKwxcsqqtGkqWJCCKno/s640/IMAG0702.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>Close up.</i></div>
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<b>How to build a Cruzbike conversion - in 90 seconds</b></div>
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A lot of people are curious how to do a Cruzbike conversion. Here's a video that I had nothing to do with (except encouraging Brian to make and post it). It is a very cool time-elapse video that shows in 90 seconds how a conversion is put together:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qu-9yhDiqPw" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<i>Bryan's <b>How to Build a Cruzbike Conversion in 90 seconds</b> video</i></div>
Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-19811256521617959832013-02-14T22:00:00.001-05:002013-02-14T22:05:46.301-05:00Dressed for SuccessMy wife's family is pretty large. In addition to her parents, she has four siblings, all of which have spouses, fiancees, and partners. So instead of everybody buying Christmas gifts for everybody, we do a Secret Santa where each person gets the name of somebody to buy a gift for. Traditionally, one pulls names from a hat to decide who gets who. Since all of us are never in the same place at the same time, a few years ago <a href="http://home.fnal.gov/~cplager/log/0811/log.html#081127" target="_blank">I wrote a Perl script</a> that picks people (making sure that spouses don't get each other) and emails everybody who their Secret Santa recipient is. This has worked out very well for us and this year, I got new bicycle gloves, bicycle shoe covers and this gorgeous and functional giraffe horn:<br />
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<a href="http://www.jbikes.net/images/horn_ultracycle_giraffe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.jbikes.net/images/horn_ultracycle_giraffe.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>My new horn (although it will probably end up on my daughter's trail-a-bike.</i></div>
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I've been trying to ride this winter. Really, I have. But it has not been easy getting out there. And it really hasn't been from a lack of trying. I have managed to get out four times for just over 60 miles. It's been to dark in the morning and evening (particularly since I want to be able to see any ice on the road) for commuting. So, I've been trying to sneak away for rides on the weekend when the weather doesn't look horrible.<br />
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Riding in the cold is difficult as you want to dress so you don't get (too) cold when your screaming down a hill at faster than 30 mph, nor do you want to overheat climbing up the next hill at 4 mph. A couple of weeks ago, I got home from work, realized that nobody was home, and went for it. It was just under 30 degrees Fahrenheit, I wore two pairs of socks, long underwear pants, my biking pants, a t-shirt, long underwear shirt, long sleeve bicycle shirt, my orange bicycle jacket, baclava, and my new bicycle gloves and shoe covers. And I had <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/11/bar-mitts-and-bar-end-mirrors.html" target="_blank">my bar mitts</a> on the bike as well. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUepjhM0_wW__9gplN1TDsBAc0p_0i8Mo3ogriX7jwQrFadOkp5oPmsKU2LATawHO0SvDz66K_4cdhU1DiYRCKNSdWD5lFMUHCCgFzyO_KEkp3waFWVlSYVHgWfDCp5zqROB2TNlwAhic/s988/IMAG0604.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUepjhM0_wW__9gplN1TDsBAc0p_0i8Mo3ogriX7jwQrFadOkp5oPmsKU2LATawHO0SvDz66K_4cdhU1DiYRCKNSdWD5lFMUHCCgFzyO_KEkp3waFWVlSYVHgWfDCp5zqROB2TNlwAhic/s640/IMAG0604.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Fully dressed and ready to go. Even when it's quite cold, i still like to ride with my water bladder for drinking.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpgcSw5ib3Lafd_GxUmhyphenhypheniHauE3gk3pymtTdjxbHrtn1-3upAe5UzpSrkI5W_tEmw_s99NWkqEKT0wJkuTt8AHwIsYdiC7tAfv1rPX6_1hYzec4nFeV-ftSu424uQiYuUB3p4PDET8XxA/s766/IMAG0606.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpgcSw5ib3Lafd_GxUmhyphenhypheniHauE3gk3pymtTdjxbHrtn1-3upAe5UzpSrkI5W_tEmw_s99NWkqEKT0wJkuTt8AHwIsYdiC7tAfv1rPX6_1hYzec4nFeV-ftSu424uQiYuUB3p4PDET8XxA/s640/IMAG0606.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>I don't just look good, I'm warm, too.</i></div>
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This all worked pretty well. I was warm enough but not too hot (I would pull the mask over my face for the descents and pull it down for climbing). My feet still got a little cold, but it was significantly better than in the past when it has been cold (the bottom of the shoes aren't sealed because of how the cleats attach), but the shoe covers helped a lot. My new gloves are a lot nicer than my old ones.<br />
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The week after that, we were found by the winter storm Nemo (get it? hee hee) and he dumped a couple feet of snow on us. And apparently, we were very lucky. I've got friends that live within 15 miles of Norwalk, and they got as much as another foot and a half of snow. A week later and there are still places near buy that still have roads blocked by snow.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGJqtII5uOKbdRYoi7iZFKgf-Zoh1gncHn0f6IbshDYpTwypnd14ToTau-aX7_bMdw55nXDn2lH7HYsrIGAL5SThKHvgWSSTyWqF4d-yYdf0SaUgqaKmwV9BRUfVDxS1_pcOKj9qwnQ40/s988/IMAG0622.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGJqtII5uOKbdRYoi7iZFKgf-Zoh1gncHn0f6IbshDYpTwypnd14ToTau-aX7_bMdw55nXDn2lH7HYsrIGAL5SThKHvgWSSTyWqF4d-yYdf0SaUgqaKmwV9BRUfVDxS1_pcOKj9qwnQ40/s640/IMAG0622.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>My little monkey playing in the snow.</i></div>
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It's been warm during the days, but there's still a significant amount of snow on the ground. If the weather stays as it has been this week, it might be clear enough for a ride this weekend. Of course, the latest forecast is for more snow. Oh well. Winter can't last that much longer, can it?Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-74378840256958015652013-01-27T21:03:00.000-05:002013-01-27T21:03:01.189-05:00What I Did on My Winter VacationI've been planning for a while to make a new entry about my non-biking activities over the winter. I've been procrastinating and it is reminding me of my youth and avoiding school assignments. And much like these assignments, I don't really expect anybody to read this.<br />
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I was off the bike for almost an entire month. Kate, the monkeys and I went up for Christmas to her parents. I was tempted to bring a bike on the off chance that the weather would have a break (as <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/07/vermont-green-mountain-state.html" target="_blank">I've very much enjoyed riding at my in-laws in Vermont</a>), but I didn't and the weather was consistently winter-y so it wouldn't have worked out anyway.<br />
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Kate and I bought snow shoes a few years ago with her parents property in mind. And we have dutifully brought them with us each winter for the past many years, and yet never managed to unwrap them (let alone use them). This time, however, we finally got motivated, got the kids (our monkeys and our niece and nephew) suited up and off we went.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6OkT5mM8RE1JLC84Fx-GASJbCW0tS6AxXm2SzEnSWcmXq1MyRktVauC1aLdenDT3lOUbxIDsO2hn5XePnrC_moi_93rdclnio84brY6DdTPRtW6NCR-ImmxNMhm6r5cQt2wjeCtbVqV4/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6OkT5mM8RE1JLC84Fx-GASJbCW0tS6AxXm2SzEnSWcmXq1MyRktVauC1aLdenDT3lOUbxIDsO2hn5XePnrC_moi_93rdclnio84brY6DdTPRtW6NCR-ImmxNMhm6r5cQt2wjeCtbVqV4/s640/2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>"Sammy", My mother in law, and Kate carrying the little monkey.</i> </div>
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<i>My niece and my big monkey</i> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiontKXfupVYLYIA8rUheeEeRst0f0EdEB30J_rDAptGMVTncFUdvS6YJQXROt8MHABjnQLZz-NvVkpjqTZwf4JXahMri1x3RCPJKHPv97KXXEdjBUnWmpCeUWY1jraeaAOux0gSK82rIw/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiontKXfupVYLYIA8rUheeEeRst0f0EdEB30J_rDAptGMVTncFUdvS6YJQXROt8MHABjnQLZz-NvVkpjqTZwf4JXahMri1x3RCPJKHPv97KXXEdjBUnWmpCeUWY1jraeaAOux0gSK82rIw/s640/1.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<i>My little monkey on my back.</i></div>
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Kate and I very much enjoyed snow shoeing and we hope to to it again. It probably isn't as much fun as cross country skiing on groomed trails, but it is much easier to in more rugged places with snow shoes. And after our first time, I went out for a short distance with my brother-in-law and father-in-law along the same path that I had used the snow shoes and could really appreciate the difference.<br />
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Both Kate and I have been playing musical instruments since we were children (although her much more than I). I played violin as a young kid, clarinet in fifth grade and saxophone from sixth grade until I graduated from high school. In college, I started playing guitar. At my parents house, I have an electric and an acoustic guitar. At my house, I have a 12 string acoustic guitar that I haven't played in many years.<br />
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I was looking to get a 6 string guitar for playing. What I don't own (either here or have stored at my parents house) is a classical guitar and since it was a good choice for the type of playing in which I was interested, I decided to see what I could get on the cheap. On Amazon, I found an <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GCWILU/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=bike0959-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B001GCWILU&adid=0TTASMZY1VBQ0VWS25QQ&" target="_blank">Valencia classical guitar</a> (for $63 shipped including a bag). The review were good, so I decided to risk it.<br />
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I'm very impressed with the quality both in the appearance and sound, particularly considering how little this cost. Classical (nylon) strings take a lot longer to <i>settle down</i> than steel strings (partially because of how they are tied at the bottom), and it took about a week for the guitar to keep its tune well. I bought a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VWKPHC/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=bike0959-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B003VWKPHC&adid=03EAT025SG91AAVCAS6R&" target="_blank">$10 Snark tuner</a> that clips onto the head of the guitar; I do have <i><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.cohortor.gstrings.tyd&feature=nav_other#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDYsIm9yZy5jb2hvcnRvci5nc3RyaW5ncy50eWQiXQ.." target="_blank">gStrings</a></i>, an android phone app that works well, but I find the stand alone tuner is much more convenient.<br />
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Looking for music to play? It turns out, not surprising, that the internet is your friend. One of my favorite sites for finding music is <a href="http://www.tablatures.tk/artists.php">tablatures.tk</a>. This site has both text files as well as <a href="http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php" target="_blank">Guitar Pro</a> tab files. The latter is much nicer, but you have to have a program that can read them (Guitar Pro costs $60).<br />
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Enter TuxGuitar. <a href="http://tuxguitar.herac.com.ar/" target="_blank">TuxGuitar</a> is a brilliant open source software that reads <a href="http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php" target="_blank">Guitar Pro</a> tab files.<br />
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It can handle multiple tracks, can transpose music, print out the tablatures, can play the music (in a very weird midi-voice, but that's good enough to figure out how it should sound). I highly recommend it. I've taught myself <i>Greensleeves </i>(<a href="http://plager.net/guitar/Greensleeves.pdf" target="_blank">pdf</a> or <a href="http://plager.net/guitar/Greensleeves.gp3" target="_blank">gp3</a> files), relearning Pink Floyd's <i>Is Anybody Out There</i> (<a href="http://plager.net/guitar/Pink_Floyd-Is_There_Anybody_Out_There.pdf" target="_blank">pdf </a>or <a href="http://plager.net/guitar/Pink_Floyd-Is_There_Anybody_Out_There.gp3" target="_blank">gp3</a> files), and even transposed the accompaniment of a few pieces to my daughters cello, such as <i>Go Tell Aunt Rhody</i> (<a href="http://plager.net/guitar/Go_tell_Aunt_Rhody.pdf" target="_blank">pdf</a> or <a href="http://plager.net/guitar/Go_tell_Aunt_Rhody.tg" target="_blank">tg</a> files).<br />
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There is snow on the ground this weekend, so I did not get a chance to get out riding. I have gotten out a few times this year, but more on that in a future post.Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-6895100118090889672012-12-02T19:37:00.000-05:002012-12-07T09:44:42.410-05:00Two Thousand Miles!I put the monkeys down for a nap and jumped on my bike and went for a nice 22 mile ride.<br />
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About half way into the ride, I realized that my bike wasn't handling very well at all. I stopped, and sure enough I had a flat rear tire. It took me about 15 minutes to get the tire changed (actually, it went pretty smoothly) and back on the bike.</center>
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With this ride, I am over 2,000 miles on my Cruzbike Sofrider in the 9½ months. It's definitely had it's ups and downs (particularly since there are hills here - ha ha!). I've ridden a bit more than 70 miles pulling my big monkey (or my nephew monkey) on the trail-a-bike, another 60+ miles pulling both of my monkeys in the trailer, and another 120+ miles pulling just the small monkey in the trailer (for just over 260 miles of pulling monkeys). Not bad for an old man.</center>
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Considering I probably haven't ridden a total of 2,000 in all previous years combined, I'm quite pleased. I have been very impressed with the Sofrider and definitely would recommend it. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNFP3vffFrtWcbFYOUGr-IuLfukhFlxhWfMyNewHFwOixH95j3Hkr7FrkudFkG6FPPZk8BA5Ru1EoaMcH2p5xclxr6rNyQbB3rjcKZ0aPi5B1kpg5DHx1Qm-tKAJWy4m3BwkLvaQXUuHg/s1600/ytd.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNFP3vffFrtWcbFYOUGr-IuLfukhFlxhWfMyNewHFwOixH95j3Hkr7FrkudFkG6FPPZk8BA5Ru1EoaMcH2p5xclxr6rNyQbB3rjcKZ0aPi5B1kpg5DHx1Qm-tKAJWy4m3BwkLvaQXUuHg/s640/ytd.png" width="541" /></a></div>
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<i>My year-to-date stats on my Sofrider.</i></div>
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It's still been cold and dark in the mornings, so I haven't been biking into work. It certainly won't be light for a while, but I do have hope that we might get a break on the cold. </div>
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Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-68768252949276825312012-11-25T15:34:00.003-05:002013-01-24T07:59:18.778-05:00Bar Mitts and Bar End MirrorsI have been lazy as far as commuting to work in the last couple weeks. It's always dark (even with the end of daylights savings time) and hasn't been above freezing in the mornings for several weeks now.<br />
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During the Thanksgiving holiday week, I had a short week at work (only Monday and Tuesday). Wednesday, I went out for <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/246854285" target="_blank">a 12 mile ride pulling the little monkey in the trailer</a> (his sister was in school at the time). Thursday, <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/246854267" target="_blank">I pulled both monkeys for just under 10 miles in the trailer</a> to the park to let them run around and get tired. I'm getting closer to 2,000 total miles this year, but haven't broken through yet.<br />
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One problem that I've had with the cold are my extremities, my hands and my feet. The biggest problem with my feet is that I wear mountain bike shoes that aren't completely sealed on the bottom because of how the cleats attach. This is worse on a recumbent compared to a regular bicycle because my the bottom of my feet are basically facing forwards into the wind. I think I'll try lining the inside with plastic bags just to act as a wind barrier.<br />
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Today <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/246854252" target="_blank">I went out for a quick 13 miler</a> with it above freezing, but not by much (36 degrees Fahrenheit or 2 degrees Celsius). I wore two pairs of socks, two layers of long underwear under my tights, an undershirt, another long undershirt and long sleeve shirt under my jacket and ear muffs. I wore my long fingered bicycle gloves which are supposed to be wind and water proof, but aren't. But I wasn't worried about cold hands today.<br />
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I've seen a few pairs of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bar-Mitts-M300BLK-Mountain-Black/dp/B002VK1MC2/">bar mitts</a> for sale in the past. I had two problems with them. First, they are expensive (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bar-Mitts-M300BLK-Mountain-Black/dp/B002VK1MC2/">these</a> sell for $45). Second, I have bar end mirrors and I didn't see how that would work.
Recently on the <a href="http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php/53-Winter-Cycling" target="_blank">winter forum</a> on <a href="http://www.bikeforums.net/forum.php">BikeForums.net</a>, somebody mentioned scooter <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0022ZJJSK/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=charlesplager-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B0022ZJJSK&adid=1TFWYVB67J1K0NHRYD42&" target="_blank">bike mitts for $16</a> (shipped). For that price, I was willing to experiment.<br />
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And I'm glad I did; it turned out well. I ripped out the seams near the corner and glued and sewed in velcro.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIEvRH9cEnh-wNUdTCQLXZzfoqPjyS9ivcdOZsM_zmqJitJy5CEyi2SBue5Mg2E8TSD953PVTPdaGgaPWEFBRxfSDRrRBwMsLmtvqJItTvnVCneeI2ZqHbWihIo9SuVxxwz1Zl0Xdeu2c/s1012/IMAG0573.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIEvRH9cEnh-wNUdTCQLXZzfoqPjyS9ivcdOZsM_zmqJitJy5CEyi2SBue5Mg2E8TSD953PVTPdaGgaPWEFBRxfSDRrRBwMsLmtvqJItTvnVCneeI2ZqHbWihIo9SuVxxwz1Zl0Xdeu2c/s640/IMAG0573.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Bar mitt showing the velcro that I glued and sewed on the inside.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDtWrASCTVYcsoq-nlFQEE7fI-mygPSJLWHYrlYHio3UbenhKbyO3i46z6g07NNhwyekewAPGdpdblgRYkXsDQhuGhdh4gvK4-OdnoLXm2Lz06yfzmO6dsifRQnZuxS_xS0V0tLrz8pQ/s1012/IMAG0571.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDtWrASCTVYcsoq-nlFQEE7fI-mygPSJLWHYrlYHio3UbenhKbyO3i46z6g07NNhwyekewAPGdpdblgRYkXsDQhuGhdh4gvK4-OdnoLXm2Lz06yfzmO6dsifRQnZuxS_xS0V0tLrz8pQ/s640/IMAG0571.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Same mitt with the velcro closed.</i></div>
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This allows me to slip the mitt over my mirror and then close the hole.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP_DNVBWGFh4sopxaCMuulUq6Krs9vnxxnInkX0YZjOZeTvUwbQLonGbMjB8J4W999M2E6yhU3muRpUAurCXwZHrdtIuRQOVC1JXRKJFeKF0j9e3lXeLx01G07ByTuV4xdO23sc1q-lvY/s1012/IMAG0570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP_DNVBWGFh4sopxaCMuulUq6Krs9vnxxnInkX0YZjOZeTvUwbQLonGbMjB8J4W999M2E6yhU3muRpUAurCXwZHrdtIuRQOVC1JXRKJFeKF0j9e3lXeLx01G07ByTuV4xdO23sc1q-lvY/s640/IMAG0570.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The bar mitt on my bicycle with the mirror poking through.</i></div>
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<i>Both mitts installed.</i></div>
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This clearly was not a profession job. My wife Kate, on the other hand, makes <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/BombyxBotanica" target="_blank">purses and other bags out of antique silk</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://www.etsy.com/listing/114312731/tsumugi-tote" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://img0.etsystatic.com/001/1/6601008/il_570xN.395833236_cws5.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i>One of Kate's bags on <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/BombyxBotanica" target="_blank">Bombyx Botanica</a>.</i></div>
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so clearly somebody in my family actually knows how to sew (and it isn't me). But the bar mitts worked extremely well and kept my hands nice and toasty warm. If it had gotten 5 degrees warmer, they would have worked too well.<br />
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It wasn't too weird riding with the mitts either. I do miss being able to see what gear I'm in (yes, I have indicators on my trigger shifters), but that wasn't too bad. I was able to get my hands out and signal and get them back in with no problems. And there were no issues with either shifting and braking. This experiment was definitely a success.<br />
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<br />Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-32478709806602249652012-11-11T19:24:00.001-05:002012-11-11T19:24:23.089-05:00Fall, Winter, and Spring in ConnecticutWhat a grand title. It sounds like I'll be talking about several months. Nope. Just this last week.<br />
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Most people have <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/11/an-accidental-upgrade-and-sandys-visit.html" target="_blank">recovered from Sandy</a>. Before the paint was even dry (or all the electricity was turned back on), we got hit by a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nor'easter" target="_blank">Nor'easter storm</a>. One friend of mine had his power restored for just over 36 hours before he lost it again (luckily it was restored that same night in his case).<br />
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With Sandy, we had very Fall weather. It rained a lot and the ground was covered with leaves. With the Nor'easter, we had several inches of snow. This was on Thursday of this week.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOlWyiW_-fQDUdKtouvoNHwfY-oOYAkou-aJThkHaPBjqmbzZBlgdYyohAqVNgsN_0qQKgIi_ZN7YZmcq4EHxhDi_kv9NrMIcoZdqNjGDzR66Qk_R2goC1qmS2wiB4bY6b8Os-6j0OBPs/s1012/IMAG0542.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOlWyiW_-fQDUdKtouvoNHwfY-oOYAkou-aJThkHaPBjqmbzZBlgdYyohAqVNgsN_0qQKgIi_ZN7YZmcq4EHxhDi_kv9NrMIcoZdqNjGDzR66Qk_R2goC1qmS2wiB4bY6b8Os-6j0OBPs/s640/IMAG0542.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>A photo from outside my work in the middle of the storm. Instant winter.</i></div>
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By Friday, the sun was back out shining and the snow was already starting to melt. The weather this weekend was (partly to mostly) sunny with a high of over 50 degrees on Saturday and into the 60s today. I didn't get a chance to ride to work this week, but was able to go out for rides both Saturday (yesterday) and today.<br />
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The same location at work a day later. What a difference a day makes.</div>
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Saturday was a nice ride. I put both my monkeys down for a nap and went out. I even managed to get back before they woke up.<br />
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I've been trying to explore new areas on the long rides and managed a new path for the end (although I think Andrew and I have ridden parts of this <i>new</i> path before). There were more hills than I would have liked in the latter part, but they're good for me, right?<br />
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At work this last week, I mentioned to Andrew that I'd love to get the big monkey out on one of our rides. We decided that he could pull the little monkey in the trailer and I'd take the big monkey on the trail-a-bike. While it probably takes less (leg) energy pulling the trail-a-bike, balancing it does take some practice, so it makes sense for me to pull it.<br />
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Today, Andrew came over and I had my comfort bike hooked up to the trailer, the trail-a-bike hooked up to my Sofrider, and two eager kids. <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/242542660" target="_blank">We went just over 8 miles</a> and everybody had a blast (I should have thought to take pictures, but I didn't). Andrew did very well for his first time out pulling a trailer (he has a very little monkey at home that will be ready for a trailer next season), but we did avoid the bigger hills in the area on his first outing. We stopped at the local park on the way back. My big monkey was o.k. with just a short time at the park (she'd been pedaling the whole time), but my little monkey wanted to stay longer. He was grumpy for a little bit, but wasn't too bad.<br />
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It was a good week. What an array of weather we've had here. So far, since February I have ridden my Cruzbike Sofrider 1915 miles. I very much want to hit 2000 miles by the end of the year and assuming the weather doesn't go crazy, I should be able to do just that. Of course, if the past couple weeks are any indication, I might be in trouble.Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-10474263092148193392012-11-04T21:20:00.000-05:002012-11-04T21:20:01.251-05:00An Accidental Upgrade and Sandy's VisitDue to many different circumstances, I haven't had as much opportunity as I would have liked to ride my bike <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-bronx-ocean-and-bridge.html" target="_blank">since the Tour de Bronx</a> 3 weeks ago. It all started off well enough. I took the Monday after the tour off to rest my legs. On Tuesday, the weather wasn't good so I skipped commuting by bike. On Wednesday, the stars aligned so I <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/239871434" target="_blank">rode my bicycle to and from work</a>. It was a short ride as I did my short routes both to and from work. But it was a good start after the tour.<br />
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On Thursday, October 21st I had every intention of riding my long route to work. As I was riding up Flax Hill, I noticed my derailleur occasionally grazing the spokes of the front wheel when I was in the biggest cog (lowest gear). As I made it to the top, I (very cleverly) decided to see if I could <i>"fix"</i> whatever was wrong. As it was still dark outside, I stopped under a street light and took a look. (If you're reading this wondering how I could be so, well, stupid, don't worry. You're not alone.)<br />
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To me, it looked as if the derailleur itself was slightly bent. So if I could apply just <i>a little bit</i> of pressure... <b>SNAP! </b>Oh, that didn't sound good. The derailleur was completely folded on itself. I tried to see if I could still pedal, but I couldn't turn the cranks more than a quarter turn before it jammed. The bad news was that I was still two miles from work and it was still dark. The good news is that after climbing Flax Hill, it was mostly down hill. So I <i>"Fred Flinstone"</i>d to work as best I could and locked the bike up.<br />
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I didn't want my bike to be out of service for too long, so that morning I ordered an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001STAOAI/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00" target="_blank">SRAM X.9 long cage derailleur</a> as well as a <span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005DVA57Y/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i01" target="_blank">Cygolite Hotshot 2-Watt USB Rechargeable Taillight</a> (of which I had read good reviews and of which I have nothing but good things to report; I recommend this tail light). I got the two items on Saturday and got to work Saturday night.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">When I got my bike on the workstand, I saw exactly what I had done. I hadn't actually broken the derailleur; I just managed to is detach the rear shifting cable so that the derailleur moved so far away from the bike that it was no longer possible for the chain to run through the bike. I could have returned the new derailleur I ordered, but since I had been toying with the idea of upgrading, I decided to install it. The old one was an SRAM X.5. With just about 90 miles on the new derailleur, I can't really tell the difference between the new one and the old one (part of me thinks the new one shifts better, but I can't decide if it really shifts better or I just want it to). In any case, I guess I now have a spare rear derailleur.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">On Sunday October 21st, it was a gorgeous fall day and I got to sneak out of the house and go for a ride while the monkeys were napping. My Garmin GPS wasn't charged, so I used my phone instead. <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/239872195" target="_blank">This almost worked</a> although it stopped recording four miles from home for some mysterious reason. Since it was such a beautiful days, I did stop at just about the half-way point to take pictures.</span><br />
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<i>Where I'm going.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwgGlbSLILPJXk5U9_dDNNMHKH5OuPwSwVNN2ItpSrBBw4Va2Ml1S7m0AJi10vuXYWN0mxcG4Vdet-OLdfFi01Ga8FGxVejiISKCKKWsNIyaqI7mSJvZhBZD32Yuu_3wQs0v6sn8_glt4/s1012/IMAG0526.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwgGlbSLILPJXk5U9_dDNNMHKH5OuPwSwVNN2ItpSrBBw4Va2Ml1S7m0AJi10vuXYWN0mxcG4Vdet-OLdfFi01Ga8FGxVejiISKCKKWsNIyaqI7mSJvZhBZD32Yuu_3wQs0v6sn8_glt4/s640/IMAG0526.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>From where I came.</i></div>
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<i>A nice example of a New England stone wall.</i></div>
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The week starting Monday, October 22nd did not give me many opportunities between the bad weather or having to take my corgi to the vet for minor surgery. I did manage to get 30 miles in two days commuting to work during the week and a very short 8 mile ride taking my little monkey to the park while his sister was at her cello lesson. At this point we knew Sandy was coming and I realized I wouldn't be riding for a while.</div>
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On Monday, October 29th, we already knew that school was cancelled for our monkeys. We had stocked up on water, candles, and food in preparation of the storm. I went to work and we were sent home just after noon. The weather looked gloomy but it was not yet raining; the radar showed a huge storm, but so far Norwalk was mostly being bypassed. </div>
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At 6 p.m. that night as there was light rain but heavy winds, Kate asked me if I knew where the flashlights were. <i>"Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't worry about it."</i> and as if on cue: <b>Pop! </b>No more power. Luckily I really did know where the flashlight was and was able to get it using the flashlight on my phone.</div>
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There were several people who stayed overnight at my work for fear that there nobody would be able to make it in the next day. It turns out that these concerns were not ridiculous. A friend of mine wanted to leave work at 7 p.m. to go home and eat dinner for a couple hours but was unable to get home and had to return back. </div>
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I left for work on Tuesday later than usual (since we had no good way to see in the house until the sun came up). Instead of my usual 8 minute drive, it took closer to 45 minutes. There were many roads blocked because of fallen trees and the wires that they brought down with them. The neighborhood in which my office is located was also without power. We have a generator to power our necessary computers at work, although not everything is powered. </div>
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<i>The financial district in New York city soon after Hurricane Sandy hit (not my photo).</i></div>
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While we had food, our house (a rental) has an electric stove and electric oven. I do have a portable BBQ grill, but it is electric too. So while we have food, we had no way to cook it (for future events, I've ordered a camping gas stove that will be here soon). The roads became more and more passable, but up to Wednesday morning there was no evidence that there was any work being done to restore power (this is not meant as a critique; the problems were serious enough it makes sense to assess them before trying to fix them). The weather was getting colder and colder. Thursday night, we accepted a very generous offer from our friends (<b>Thanks</b> Diana and David!) to stay at their house since with no power, we had no heat. Our bags were packed and we were waiting for Kate to come back from our big monkey's cello lesson when our power came back on. As far as I can tell, Mother Nature decided that since we had effectively solved our problems (going to a place with heat; ordered portable gas stove), it was no longer as much fun to mess with us, so she let the electricity be turned on again.</div>
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Even in Norwalk, there are still many people without power (just over 10% still have no power almost a week later). And since we didn't get much rain here, we were actually very lucky. The flooding we had was due to storm surge and it would have been <b>much</b> worse if we had a couple of inches rain on top of that (which was in the original forecast). New York and New Jersey both have many places that were hit much worse than we were. So as annoying as it was to be without power for three days, we did not lose water and most of us did not sustain damage that was too bad.</div>
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Yesterday, <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/239871379" target="_blank">my friend Andrew and I got out for a short ride</a>. We had to take many detours of our planned route due to many crews actively working to clear fallen trees and get power restored. I got out myself for <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/240379537" target="_blank">another nice ride</a> today and found that several of the roads that were passable yesterday were closed today by crews. Hundreds of very old trees came down during this storm. It is going to be a while before the areas affected fully recover from this storm. The weather these last two days has been gorgeous - quite the contrast from the storm.</div>
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When my wife came home from a shopping trip, she told me there was a crew from Quebec just down the street. I walked down and thanked them for coming (they even understood my french!). We also heard of crews from such near by places as Massachusetts and as far away as Washington state. </div>
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I'm sure that if I were without power, I'd be less philosophical (and more bitter), but these events really do put things in perspective. Stay safe.</div>
Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-72377058870527158012012-10-16T21:45:00.000-04:002012-11-16T14:07:07.711-05:00The Bronx, The Ocean, and A BridgeI should probably start by warning you that the title of this post is somewhat misleading. But never fear. All will reveal itself in good time (and probably not be worth the build up I'm currently giving it).<br />
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Since <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/09/success-failure-and-cold.html" target="_blank">my last blog entry</a> three weeks ago, I had been sick and got very little riding in. I had been hoping to ride the 40 mile <a href="http://tourdebronx.org/" target="_blank">Tour de Bronx</a>, but was getting quite worried that I wasn't going to be healthy enough in time. Last Friday (four days ago), I was finally well enough to get back on the bike and got almost <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/233072141" target="_blank">17.5 miles commuting to and from work</a>. This was by far not the fastest ride I have ever done, but both the morning and afternoon rides themselves went well.<br />
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As it is now fall and daylight savings time has not yet ended, I start out my commutes in the dark. About half way into my Friday ride, the sun was finally coming up and I stopped to get a picture of the sunrise.<br />
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<i>The sun rising over the Long Island Sound.</i></div>
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When I got of my bike to take a picture, I realized how quiet it was. All I could hear was the ocean. I enjoyed it enough that I took a short (10 second) video where really the only interesting thing is the sound.<br />
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<i>Short video where you can hear the ocean. Corny, but I like it.</i></div>
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<a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/08/onward-and-upward.html" target="_blank">A few posts ago</a>, I mentioned a technique called bridging. This is basically where I plant my shoulders against the rear of the seat and lift my butt off of the seat while pushing on the pedals. This technique allows me, for a short period of time produce a lot of power and either really zoom ahead if I am riding on a flat bit of road or zoom up short but very steep hills.</div>
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This is a technique that many recumbent riders use. Reading about it, it sounds like this is usually done on bicycles with a lower seat angle than I have on my Sofrider - I have heard you need an angle of 30 degrees from horizontal or less (my Sofrider angle is closer to 45 degrees). While I was on my commute ride, I realized that when I am bridging, I am also pushing myself up against the handlebars. </div>
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The reason this is relevant is that unlike upright (err.. regular) bicycles, on most recumbents they are not designed to support much stress on the handle bars at all. Cruzbikes, because they are front wheel drive that have the bottom bracket (where the pedals are attachted) that swings with the front wheel, have handlebars that can sustain much more force. Without well braced handlebars, I wouldn't be able to bridge on a rear wheel drive recumbent.</div>
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Back, to our regularly scheduled blog entry, I hadn't gotten the miles I would have wanted for the last three weeks, but the ride went well enough that I thought I was ready for the Tour de Bronx on Sunday (two days later).<br />
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One of the <a href="http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/index.php" target="_blank">'Bent Rider Online Forum</a> readers, Pat, <a href="http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/showthread.php?t=88570" target="_blank">posted about the Tour de Bronx</a> and organized a meeting for recumbent riders. One difference about this ride compared to others I have done in the past is that the start and the end of the ride were not at the same place. Pat was clever enough to tell everybody to park at the end. So following his directions, I was at the meeting point with by bike put back together and ready to go with 30 minutes to spare. The weather was cool and it was drizzling slightly. The rain stopped completely within 30 minutes and never came back.<br />
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I was the first recumbent rider there, but most definitely not the last. The second to arrive also lives in Norwalk (how's that for a nice coincidence!). Within 30 minutes, I saw more recumbent bicycles in one place than I have ever seen before in my life. Long wheel base recumbents, short wheel base recumbents, some with <a href="http://blog.autospeed.com/static/images/blog/2008/03/actionbentsmall.jpg" target="_blank">under seat steering</a>. There was even a family that showed up where the teenage sons rode mountain bikes and the parents rode <a href="http://www.bicycleman.com/recumbents/rans/images/rans_screamer_tandem_lg.jpg" target="_blank">tandem recumbent</a>.<br />
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We left the parking lot as a group around 9:30, arrived at the start around 10:15 where we had to pick up our event numbers. The start was so busy that we got separated. A handful of us found each other and were (almost) ready for the start at 10:30.<br />
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Andrew and I rode the <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/05/bloomin-metric-centry-we-made-it.html" target="_blank">Bloomin' Metric Century</a> in May, this was the most bicycles I ever saw at one place. We were also impressed at how homogeneous a group of people were riding that event. Almost everybody was fully spandexed, riding a road bicycle where I estimated that the average bike there probably cost around $2,000.<br />
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The Tour de Bronx was much more heterogeneous, both in terms of the racial make up of the event, but also in terms of the bicycles. There were many many fully spandexed riders here on nice road bikes. Unlike the Bloomin' Metric, I saw several folding bicycles, a lot of fixed gear bicycles, a few pre-teen children riding mountain bikes with knobby tires, and even a BMX bicycle with 20" wheels and no gears. Most bicycles seemed to be working fine, but the average bicycle price was well less than the Bloomin' Metric. And where as the Bloomin' Metric Century was capped at 2,500 riders, this news paper sets the attendance at more than double at 6,000 riders. There were several places where I was not able to ride as quickly as I would have liked because it was so crowded. The atmosphere of this event was unlike that of any I have yet ridden.<br />
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<i>A view of the first rest stop.</i></div>
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At about 14 miles (including our trip to the start), we got to the first rest top. It was crazy busy, but there weren't problems getting food. Pat knew about a <i>"secret toilet"</i>; otherwise it would have taken 30 minutes just to visit the facilities. I was supposed to meet the rest of the recumbent riders outside the rest area, but I lost them and continued on by myself.<br />
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During the ride, the sun came out in full force. In between the first and second stop, I pulled over in some woods to change my pants into shorts and remove two long sleeve shirts. I was very well served having my Camelbak water bladder attached to my bicycle.<br />
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The route for this tour (as you can see below) really was all over the Bronx. It was nice getting back to City Island (to where <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/04/new-your-here-we-come-or-good-bad-and.html" target="_blank">Andrew and I rode in April</a>). <br />
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<i>The Tour de Bronx Ride. Since I started recording in the parking lot, the start and the stop are the same on my recording, which was not true of the actual ride.</i></div>
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As the ride progressed, the population of bicycles got thinner and thinner. At the beginning of the ride, the police closed several streets and were directing traffic to allow the hoards of bicycles through. Several spectators came out to cheer us on our way, and as usual, children really enjoyed seeing my recumbent bicycle - when we were a group of recumbents the reaction of the crowd was often quite lively. After the third rest stop, the marshals that had been ever-present became quite rare indeed. Within a mile after the last stop, the group of bicycles I was with no longer knew where to go and we were officially lost. Between miles 43.5 and 44.5, I rode up a large hill (yes, they do really exist in the Bronx), just to realize that that wasn't the right way and to ride back down.<br />
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Because my GPS records a path of where I had been and because Pat was ever so clever (thanks Pat!) to tell us to park at the end, I effectively had a very good compass to help me get back to my car. At mile 45, with another rider following me, we came across a large steep hill. She stopped at the bottom to walk up; I rode up 1/3 of the way before I quit. The hill was definitely climbable, but I was tired enough that I just didn't want to push it.<br />
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A few miles before the end, I picked up a group of a half a dozen riders who were also lost relying on my GPS to get us back. We made it back largely without incident, although I'm willing to believe that the official route would have been on much less busy streets. I'll be curious to see if I can find the GPS track from somebody who rode the ride correctly so I can compare it to mine to see where (and how badly) I got it wrong.<br />
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As promised, I've covered everything the title of the post said I would, albeit not necessarily as expected.<br />
It was a long three weeks getting over my cold. I'm not completely better, but I'm much better off and very glad that I was able to ride <i>"the tour." </i>
Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-35694736336425893552012-09-30T19:28:00.001-04:002012-09-30T19:46:31.381-04:00Success, Failure, and a ColdIn the week <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-good-couple-weeks.html" target="_blank">after my last entry</a> (two weeks ago), I rode just over 30 miles commuting two days. It is definitely getting both colder and darker in the mornings as we are moving into fall. It has been almost completely dark when I've been leaving for work. On the plus side, I've been getting some very nice sunrises over the sound.<br />
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<i>The sun starting to rise over the Long Island Sound taken from the bridge entering Bell Island.</i></div>
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<i>A view on the other side of the bridge.</i></div>
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One of my wife's bride's maids, Pam, came to visit us for a few days. I borrowed Andrew's folding bike so that Pam, Kate (pulling the little monkey in the trailer) and I (pulling the big monkey on the trail-a-bike) could go for a ride. We ended up going over 8.5 miles on a very nice ride around where I work.<br />
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On Sunday, Andrew and I went for a longer ride (<a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/226249187" target="_blank">I ended up going around 25 miles total</a>). At 17.5 miles, Andrew and I were once again in front of <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/04/biggest-hill-i-ever-saw.html" target="_blank">the biggest hill I ever saw</a>. We had not yet decided which way to go. Andrew wanted to turn left at the intersection avoiding the hill. <i>"Unless you have unfinished business with that hill."</i><br />
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The last time we tried, Andrew made it the whole way up, but I only made it 3/4th of the way. So, straight we went towards the hill. As many make battle cries before heading into battle, I thought I needed one too. <i>"I'm a moron"</i> was the last thing I shouted before heading up the hill. I lead Andrew and we both made it the entire way up the hill. <b>Success at last! </b>I was tired, breathing hard, spent, but happy.<br />
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At the top of the hill, we consulted Google maps and decided on our route. We couldn't quite decide what to do and remembered (incorrectly as it turned out) that continuing on the path on which we were headed lead us into some not-so-nice-on-which-to-ride-a-bicycle roads. So we turned around and then went down that monster of a hill.<br />
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I like going zooming down big hills as much as the next guy. And just as this was a monster of a hill to climb, this was the steepest hill I've ever descended. This hill was extreme steep, on a not very wide street that had a fair amount of traffic, and had a stop light not too far from the bottom of the hill. Because of this, I rode my brakes down and still hit close to 40 mph. A hill with the same decent but with better conditions, I could easily imagine hitting 50 mph.<br />
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We turned right and started climbing a small hill that was easy enough. But within a mile we were at the base of yet another monster climb. This hill I only made it up about half way before my front wheel started slipping I had to stop. <b> </b>Nary 10 minutes after my big success, and it's capped of with a climbing failure. <b>Ugh! </b><br />
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I entered the bit of route I didn't manage on <a href="http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1751087" target="_blank">Ride with GPS</a>. The two hills are actually very similar as far length of climb, maximum grade (> 12% in both cases, probably more), and elevation gain. When my front wheel slips, I can often pull myself up using the
handlebars moving more of my weight to the front (drive) wheel, but I
was too exhausted to do this on the second climb. So it isn't a failure of the bike, but rather just the rider.<br />
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Within a couple hours of getting home, I had succumbed to the same cold Kate had been fighting. No fever, but lots of crap in my lungs, etc. Here it is a week later, and my symptoms keep morphing back and fourth, but I still have the same bloody cold and haven't ridden since that Sunday. Hopefully I'll get this cold licked soon. Part of me thinks that if I hadn't gotten sick I could have made it up the second hill. Wishful thinking? Maybe future rides will tell.Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-91318004187721739642012-09-18T18:53:00.003-04:002012-09-18T19:54:08.569-04:00A Good Couple WeeksIn the two weeks since <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/09/new-toys-or-show-and-tell.html" target="_blank">my last post</a>, I've done nine rides for a total of just over 130 miles. Five of the rides have been commuting to work and back for a total of 60 miles. Admittedly since I live only 3.25 miles from work, I wasn't always going the direct route.<br />
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Ten days ago, I got two rides in on the weekend. I first went for a <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220923278" target="_blank">ten mile jaunt pulling the little monkey in his trailer</a>. It was starting to rain as I got to the base of the big climb on that ride, so I chickened out and turned around. I won't even try to convince you that if it wasn't starting to rain that I would have climbed the hill. On Sunday, I did a nice <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220923270" target="_blank">25 miler just over the New York state line and back</a>. I tried to something different on the way back, but ended up on the same route a little too soon. Maybe I'll have better luck next time getting lost.<br />
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This past weekend the weather was gorgeous. This time of year is my favorite as we still get lots of light, but the heat is starting to recede. On Saturday, <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/223516431" target="_blank">Andrew and I went for a quick ride</a> with me pulling the little monkey in the trailer. There was no rain so I had no excuses. We tried to find a new loop, but decided it was on streets that were too busy to pull a trailer, so ended up doing a big loop that had me climbing several hills. Pulling that extra weight up the hills really does give me a good workout. I noticed that it was significantly easier than <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/09/several-nice-rides.html" target="_blank">last time</a>, largely because it was just enough cooler that my body wasn't terribly over-heating.<br />
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<i>A nice park in the middle of our ride.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtx9WCXVB1T_YEgi0pnzv8lmAt9SSxHvGHNlvwCcZuPLhIkxuPRVTwNyFs5IbqhzhYvItax0W1LNlqsHvJ31VmCrxuM7QKj19iQlYFfQcCvG7iDkLb2N1NFoU2wZeIju_YUuf0KF2vWpo/s1012/IMAG0483.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtx9WCXVB1T_YEgi0pnzv8lmAt9SSxHvGHNlvwCcZuPLhIkxuPRVTwNyFs5IbqhzhYvItax0W1LNlqsHvJ31VmCrxuM7QKj19iQlYFfQcCvG7iDkLb2N1NFoU2wZeIju_YUuf0KF2vWpo/s640/IMAG0483.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><strike>Ducks</strike> Geese on the pond. If you look closely, you can see some of the geese with their heads underwater and their butts up in the air. I really find that position quite funny.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyi6_jFunCS8Ccy71x2SU3sfpRTp7YllXbg7ZVWYyZWVJ_zEVJsAF7_xzHAB9ASINAAoAFSkc3saUpWXYtTj4Y-r6eEsDbVbMu_qpxZiCP3bbqACFZ5mvO4GOSg0E9fITMgr8l2C_rtI4/s1012/IMAG0485.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyi6_jFunCS8Ccy71x2SU3sfpRTp7YllXbg7ZVWYyZWVJ_zEVJsAF7_xzHAB9ASINAAoAFSkc3saUpWXYtTj4Y-r6eEsDbVbMu_qpxZiCP3bbqACFZ5mvO4GOSg0E9fITMgr8l2C_rtI4/s640/IMAG0485.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The little monkey holding his sunglasses in his trailer. You can make out his water bottle stashed in the pocket on the trailer on the left and his </i>"cell phone"<i> in the right pocket. They both seem to keep him quite content.</i></div>
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On Sunday, I got a chance to go for <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/223516388" target="_blank">another ride with my friend Tom</a>. Just under 18 miles total and about a mile or two from the state line, it was another gorgeous day. On our way back, we saw a father on a road bike and his son riding a mountain bike with knobby tires. As I was passing them going down hill, I told the father that changing his son's tires for something smooth would let him go a lot faster on his bike. The father asked if he could get such tires and seemed very excited when I told him that my Sofrider had the same size wheels as his son's bike. I've never sold tires while riding down a hill before.</div>
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All-in-all, a very nice couple of weeks. All of the <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/09/new-toys-or-show-and-tell.html" target="_blank">upgrades I talked about last time</a> are working well and I can report that the air horn does indeed get drivers attention when needed. Hopefully I'll have another upbeat update coming soon!</div>
Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-89983804459074268402012-09-03T15:11:00.003-04:002013-02-05T07:12:52.920-05:00New Toys(or Show-and-Tell)First, for those regular readers, I've been a bit lax updating my blog in the last couple of weeks. To make up for it, I wrote an <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/09/several-nice-rides.html" target="_blank">entry yesterday talking about recent rides</a> as well as today's entry about upgrades. That entry has more exciting less tech-y pictures than this one.<br />
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A few weeks ago, my <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/07/bad-bikema.html" target="_blank">front derailleur shifter cable broke</a>. I bought a set of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ONNNCO/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i01" target="_blank">SRAM X.4 trigger shifters</a> to replace my current shifters. I installed the front derailleur shifter <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/08/onward-and-upward.html" target="_blank">three days after the cable broke</a>. I didn't get around to installing the rear derailleur shifter until two weeks ago.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_-Hjn3DcN2AOFK_gymuLs0MpB1zbtMw8DaWXdhOm6dAFyM1cPTIP-iQxE0m2rmJ-oUuZ3n4wdOIP4kGmjAFkVqunENQyWSBvzv7OGqE3c4ZOef3Y5M2Rw1Pr81Y5maTM1mqnmyb8Lxnk/s1012/IMAG0458.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_-Hjn3DcN2AOFK_gymuLs0MpB1zbtMw8DaWXdhOm6dAFyM1cPTIP-iQxE0m2rmJ-oUuZ3n4wdOIP4kGmjAFkVqunENQyWSBvzv7OGqE3c4ZOef3Y5M2Rw1Pr81Y5maTM1mqnmyb8Lxnk/s640/IMAG0458.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The old front shifter. Note the ever-present gap between the shifter and the grip.</i></div>
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A couple of hours before my <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/216592425" target="_blank">ride with Andrew to New York State line and back</a>, I started work to upgrade the shifter. I was a little concerned that I wasn't leaving myself enough time to get the new shifter installed and tuned, but I had no problems. In addition to installing the shifters, I also installed <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002P85550/ref=oh_details_o05_s01_i00" target="_blank">SRAM locking grips</a> and a second <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009R96YK/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00" target="_blank">Mirrycle bar-end mirror</a>. The old grips would often separate from the grip shifter leaving an annoying gap; the new grips alleviate this problem completely. I very much like the mirror I already had on the left side handbars, so I bought a second for my bike (as well as one for my wife's bicycle). Mirrors are a good idea on any bicycle, but are particularly important on recumbent bicycles since it so much harder to turn around and see what's behind you.<br />
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Particularly important on front-wheel-drive bikes, to help stabilize them when parking if you can set the front brake. The <a href="http://www.bikebrake.com/" target="_blank">bike brake</a> is a very cheap way of doing just this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihr-bl96QLh01BQmxKTuClhc4er8w61zltX82IcPa2UVEY2Pt5uctAJ9y9jqmQrSZaLWke-PnIpiSk7CGHOqskhqsaHbxQd-d2dMN-nNJiNVdlRIR7GTM7FB5zt6D33O6Ama6SrDDSrno/s1012/IMAG0460.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihr-bl96QLh01BQmxKTuClhc4er8w61zltX82IcPa2UVEY2Pt5uctAJ9y9jqmQrSZaLWke-PnIpiSk7CGHOqskhqsaHbxQd-d2dMN-nNJiNVdlRIR7GTM7FB5zt6D33O6Ama6SrDDSrno/s640/IMAG0460.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>A view of the finished upgrade, including a second mirror and the bike parking brake.</i></div>
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<i>A close-up of the grip, the shifter, the bike brake, and the mirror.</i></div>
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For the rear derailleur, I very much prefer the trigger shifter to the grip shifter. For one thing, when I would pull myself up by the handlebars, I often found that I would accidentally shift. For another, when I'm shifting into my granny gear, I generally go from the middle chain ring on the crankset and the lowest gear on the cassette to the granny gear on the crankset and the fourth gear on the cassette. I want this switch to be as simultaneous as possible. Before, it was largely guess work. Now, I just <i>plink-PLUNKplink-plink</i> and I'm there. (The <i>plink</i> is the shifting of the rear derailleur and the <i>PLUNK</i> is the front).<br />
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There are two downsides to this new setup. The first of which is that the twist front derailleur actually had more than three positions which would help avoid situations where the chain likes to rub on the front derailleur; I can't really get into the fifth gear or above on the rear derailleur when I'm in the granny gear. The second issue is knee clearance. Having the shifter live below the handlebars reduces this clearance. This doesn't affect me because I installed an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001C65VQY/ref=wms_ohs_product" target="_blank">adjustable stem</a> as well as moved my seat <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-low-can-i-go-part-ii.html" target="_blank">as far forward as possible</a>. I am not a big fan of twist shifters and am pleased with the upgrade to trigger shifters.<br />
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After this ride, I installed two other new toys. First, I installed <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001CLSWKQ/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00" target="_blank">Kool-Stop dual compound mountain pads</a> on the front brake. I don't know if it just because because the original pads were quite worn (they had almost 1,500 miles on them when they were replaced) or because the new pads are really just that much better (or most likely, both), but the new brake pads help me stop much more quickly. Another worthy upgrade.<br />
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<i>Kool-Stop front brake pads. The two colors are two different compounds are for tuned for wet and try stopping.</i></div>
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I've had a couple of close calls with cars where my only recourse has been to, well, basically shout at them to get their attention. Especially since I am often riding with my children, I've decided that I wanted a loud horn. I've just added a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ACAMJC/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00" target="_blank">Delta Cycle Airzound Horn</a>.<br />
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<i>Airzound horn (surrounded by lights) with bottle reservoir.</i></div>
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The horn is air-powered and has the ability to (somewhat) control the volume. The reservoir is refillable with a regular air pump (up to 80 psi). I (fortunately) haven't yet needed to use it in traffic, but I'm convinced it will get me noticed when I need it. On trails and with pedestrians, I'll continue to use my voice as this horn is too loud for pedestrians and other cyclists.</div>
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The last two pictures are toys that I've already had and talked about. But since I was taking pictures, so I snapped a couple of shots. I used an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002SR3L04/ref=wms_ohs_product" target="_blank">Axiom seat collar with rack eyelets</a> to attach the rear rack. I bought 29.8mm size which wasn't quite large enough to replace the seat collar that was there. I decided that this was a good thing and I used a piece of rubber to line the seat post and attached it. The reason I decided this was better is that I didn't want to directly connect the the rack (which is attached to the rear triangle) to the main body of the bike (since there is a rear shock). I really ought to bring up a metal piece from the rear triangle so that the rack isn't attached to the main body at all, but I found that how it is works well enough.</div>
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<i>Rack attached to the seatpost. You can see the Trek trail-a-bike mount attached to the seatpost as well.</i></div>
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The final picture is showing how I mount my <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00437VDQQ/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=bike0959-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B00437VDQQ&adid=0P4F64PH8XCSMQHMXDPQ&" target="_blank">100oz Camelbak Unbottle</a> to the back of my seat. I use two straps that go under the upper seat pad to hold it in place. In my case, it sits on the braces for the rack, but I'm sure if the rack wasn't there, I would figure out something to make sure that it didn't drop too low and interfere with either the wheel or the brake.</div>
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I've never gone for a ride longer than 20 miles without this water reservoir and I recommend it highly.</div>
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<i>Camelback Unbottle attached to the back of my seat.</i></div>
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Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-701443927963981322012-09-02T10:11:00.000-04:002012-09-03T17:17:43.835-04:00Several Nice RidesI've done a bit of both riding and upgrades since <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/08/onward-and-upward.html" target="_blank">my last blog entry</a>; I'll talk about the upgrades in <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/09/new-toys-or-show-and-tell.html" target="_blank">another entry here</a>. In the last two weeks, I've been on nine rides (counting commuting to and from work as a single ride) and my total on my Sofrider is now just over 1,500 miles (since the middle of February).<br />
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First, my friend Andrew and I went on a very nice <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/216592425" target="_blank">25 mile ride to just inside New York state and back</a>. This was Andrew's first big ride he and his wife Amy had their baby 3 months ago (and since his rear wheel was being rebuilt, he rode it on my comfort bike instead of his bicycle). We averaged over 12 mph with 1200 feet of elevation gain. Given that it was his first long ride since the <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/05/bloomin-metric-centry-we-made-it.html" target="_blank">Bloomin' Metric Century in May</a> and it wasn't on a bike he had ever ridden before (and given that he had thought he'd want to ride <i>"five to ten miles"</i>), it was huge success.<br />
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I had several very nice commuting to work rides. <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/216592396" target="_blank">This ride</a>, for example, had a nice 9.7 mile loop in the morning with an 7.7 mile loop home with an average speed of both laps of just under 14 mph. On another ride in to work, I saw a family of deer crossing the road. Most of them ran off before I got out my phone, but you can almost make out of two of them.<br />
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<i>Two of the family of deer I spotted. The others got away before I got out my camera.</i></div>
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Apparently summer is coming to an end because I'm getting on the rode while the sun is still waking up. Here is a nice shot of the sun rise over the Long Island Sound.<br />
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<i>A nice sunrise. It isn't actually as dark as it looks; the light from the sun triggered the auto-light level in the camera.</i><br />
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On my ride to work this Wednesday, as I was finished climbing a small hill and about to turn onto a nice stretch of downhill, I caught a glimpse of something blue. In my mirror, I saw a fully spandexed road bicycle rider in my mirror, complete with his <i>Team Garmin</i> jersey. Since I had a slight downhill (about 1% grade), I decided to go for it and try and hold him off. I was huffing and puffing (unfortunately, I let the Garmin batteries die so I don't know how fast I was going) and making pretty good time. But I saw him gaining in my mirror. After about half a mile, he passed me and said: <i>"Impressive! Very impressive!" </i> to which I replied (with a big smile on my face): <i>"I tried!"</i> For the next mile, he lead, but he didn't drop me. I was within 10 meters or so until I turned off to head to work.</div>
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August was a busy month for us. My parents came to visit us in the beginning of the month. Kate and the monkeys went up to her parents house in Vermont. When they got back, my sister Debbie, her husband Alex, and her two sons came to visit last week. And during all of this, my big monkey just started kindergarten!<br />
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My bigger nephew wanted to try Julia's trail-a-bike. He just turned four and he is just <i>a little bit</i> shorter than my big monkey. So when she was at kindergarten, Alex and I went for a ride. Alex rode Kate's bike pulling my little monkey, and I rode my Sofrider pulling my nephew (since it's harder balance with a trail-a-bike since I have experience pulling one). <br />
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Although my Alex is originally from Maine, he and my sister now live in Illinois, where it is <b>flat</b>. I did try to point out that here in Connecticut we have hills ("<i>I'm from Maine, I know hills."</i>). So off we went. The ride turned out to be a little tougher than either of us expected. We did a total of 8 miles. Alex might have grown up riding in hills, but this was his first time pulling a trailer up them. And he's grateful that he was pulling up my little monkey who is significantly lighter than his big monkey.<br />
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In my case, I've been riding pulling my big monkey on trail-a-bikes since she was three years old (first using a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Trail-Gator-Trailgator-Bicycle-Tow-Bar/dp/B001NGD5FM/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1346593995&sr=1-1&keywords=gator+bar" target="_blank">gator bar</a> pulling her 12" bicycle with my folding bike and now her <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/04/pulling-trail-bike.html" target="_blank">Trek trail-a-bike</a>), so she understands how to balance very well. My nephew had never ridden one before, so he wasn't nearly as experienced as how to balance. And he's <b>a lot</b> heavier than his cousin. Being on my Sofrider, my center of mass is a lot lower than it would be on my comfort bike, and so it was sometimes quite a bit of effort to keep everything balanced.<br />
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At first, he wasn't pedaling at all and even without that complication, I was spending a lot of energy making sure we were well balanced.. When he first started to pedal, I was surprised by how much effort it took on my part to keep us balanced (my arms were sore a couple days later, so it was quite a workout for me). By the end of the ride, however, we were going up one last hill where not only did he pedal, his pedaling helped. And most importantly, he had a blast.<br />
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Yesterday, while my big monkey was at her cello lesson, Andrew came by and he and I went out for a ride (he rode on my comfort bike, and I was riding my Sofrider pulling my little monkey in the trailer). We<a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/217836637" target="_blank"> rode a total of 11.5 miles</a>, including the biggest hills up which I've ever tried to pull a trailer. After reaching the peak of the last hill (almost 90 feet in 0.3 miles or an average grade of 6%), I was ready for a rest.<br />
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<i>The little monkey and me taking a quick breather before continuing on our ride. That little monkey really likes his cantaloupe. </i></div>
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The ride home was quite a bit easier since we had a net drop of about 200 feet. We averaged just over 10 mph, of which I was really quite proud considering everything.<br />
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All in all, I rode just over 125 miles and really had a blast! As I mentioned, I've now put on just over fifteen hundred miles on this bicycle. I'm very happy with the Sofrider and would highly recommend it to people who think they might be interested. In a couple years (<i>read:</i> when I might be able to afford it), I can easily see upgrading to one of the higher end Cruzbikes like the <a href="http://www.cruzbike.com/vendetta" target="_blank">Vendetta</a> or <a href="http://www.cruzbike.com/silvio" target="_blank">Silvio</a>.Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-42400758280058146232012-08-18T22:11:00.000-04:002012-08-19T16:39:28.938-04:00Onward and UpwardI successfully replaced the front derailleur shifter after the <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/07/bad-bikema.html" target="_blank">cable snapped two weeks ago</a>. I bought a set of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ONNNCO/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i01" target="_blank">SRAM X.4 trigger shifters</a> but have only installed the front derailleur shifter so far. For the front derailleur, I might actually prefer the twist shifter but on previous bicycles, I prefer the trigger shifters for the rear derailleur (which is why I bought trigger shifters), so I will change the other shifter as well.. I'll have more updates after I swap out the other shifter, hopefully soon.<br />
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I was only out of commission for a couple of days with the broken cable and still managed to get 85 miles in during the last two weeks. Almost all of which are from commuting to and from work, although admittedly I often take routes that are very much not direct. For example, <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/212163973" target="_blank">on Friday my total distance was just under 17 miles</a> instead of the 9 the direct route it would have been (they've been doing construction so I've been taking a slightly longer route).<br />
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One new thing I've been trying is a technique called <i>bridging</i> (talked about both Ak-tux in the comments of this <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-low-can-i-go.html" target="_blank">blog post</a> and in <a href="http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/showthread.php?t=86647&highlight=bridging#td_post_962346" target="_blank">this 'Bent Riders Online (BROL) Forum post</a>). The basic idea is that I plant my shoulders into the seat, push hard on the pedals, and lift my butt out of the seat. It almost looks like I'm standing up like one would do on a regular diamond frame bike. Well, when I say almost, I should point out that my butt <b>barely</b> gets out of the seat. So, it probably doesn't really look like somebody standing, but that's how I like to imagine it. It is worth pointing out that I've read that it is easier to bridge when the seat angle is lower (closer to horizontal). I was not successful before <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-low-can-i-go-part-ii.html" target="_blank">I lowered my seat angle</a>.<br />
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I can't bridge for very long as it takes core muscles that apparently I don't really have. But when I am doing it, I find that I am able to transfer considerably more energy to the pedals. I've been able to power up some small to smallish-medium hills using this technique and I find that I can do it much faster and therefore in a much bigger gear than when I just sit back and spin my way up.<br />
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Unlike other regular or recumbent bicycles, the pedals are directly hooked up to the steering. One advantage of this is that when climbing hills, I can <i>"pull myself up"</i> by the handlebars which means that I can get my upper body involved in climbing. I have been using this technique since the beginning. I find that bridging helps me climb better than this technique (although I can't do either for very long).<br />
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There's <a href="http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/showthread.php?t=87845&highlight=bridging" target="_blank">another post on BROL</a> where a rider came up with an idea of using a blood-pressure cuff as an inflatable bladder that he uses to help him bridge for long periods of time. On this entry, <a href="http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/showthread.php?p=976469#poststop" target="_blank">I hypothesized</a> that in order for this to work, it needs to be the case that when one is sitting on the air bladder, one is not as stable as when just sitting on the seat and this instability leads to the hips being able to move in a more unimpeded fashion. I don't know that this theory holds any water or not. In any case since it is not very expensive to try his technique, maybe I'll do that in the future as well.Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-72004274771669035852012-07-29T19:33:00.001-04:002012-07-30T07:52:39.100-04:00Bad Bike-Ma?July has been a tough month for bicycling. First, <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/07/lots-of-commuting-rides-or-how-i-almost.html" target="_blank">my front wheel almost fell off</a>. Next, <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/07/trips-to-state-line-almost-park.html" target="_blank">I fell over</a> (scraping up my pride and my elbow). Last week between constraints with Kate out of town and the weather, I didn't ride in to work a single time. And, to top it all off yesterday, the shifter cable running to my front derailleur broke while I was on a <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/204528119" target="_blank">ride pulling the little monkey in the trailer</a>. I did ride the remaining 2.5 miles home using only my granny gear up front, but in an effort to hit the lap button on my Garmin, I accidentally hit the stop button.<br />
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<i>See if you can spot the wild turkeys? I took the picture and it still took me a couple of minutes to find one.</i></div>
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Before the cable broke, it was a nice ride. We saw a family of wild turkeys (although when I stopped to take a picture, they had pretty well hidden themselves). This is my longest ride pulling a monkey so far (16.3 miles) and I felt pretty good at the end of it (I could have gone further if it weren't for the broken shifter cable and the monkey starting to get cranky).<br />
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In any case, I've ordered new shifters so that hopefully I'll be up and running mid-week. And since that will be August, so maybe my bike-ma (and karma) will be on the up and up.<br />
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<br />Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-37890086006255532092012-07-22T20:07:00.000-04:002012-07-22T20:07:56.550-04:00Trips To the State Line (Almost), The Park (Definitely), and The Dirt (Unfortunately)There was rain this week so I only got to ride into work twice (although I did manage to stretch it out to 21 miles instead of just 13). <span style="background-color: white;">Kate and her father are in Oregon visiting her grandmother. Kate's mother is staying with the rest of us to watch the monkeys while Kate is gone. Since the monkeys really like their grandmother, they are behaving better than usual (which, believe you me, is a very good thing).</span><br />
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My mother-in-law needed to go back up to her house yesterday, but graciously held off leaving until 8:30 a.m. so that I could go out for <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/202103225" target="_blank">a quick ride</a>. I rode most of the way to New York state, turning around in Bethel, Connecticut. It was almost 650 feet in altitude gain with some pretty serious hills just before I turned around. I only averaged 12.7 mph, partly because the hills slowed me down so much climbing, but because they were in town, I couldn't safely zoom down them when I came back home. <span style="background-color: white;">I was going to finish the ride with a pass up Flax Hill road, but I ran out of time (No, really, I ran out of time or I would have. Stop snickering.)</span><br />
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<i>A view of the rode in Bethel just after I turned around.</i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Today I packed <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/202103208" target="_blank">both monkeys in the trailer and took them to a nearby park</a>. <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/07/lots-of-commuting-rides-or-how-i-almost.html" target="_blank">Last week</a> I ended the ride pulling the little monkey in the trailer and I found that it wasn't much more (if any) effort than pulling the <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/04/pulling-trail-bike.html" target="_blank">big monkey on the trail-a-bike</a>. But pulling them both in the trailer was actually kind of demoralizing as it was a lot harder than I remembered. </span><span style="background-color: white;"> This ride only had 400 feet of elevation gain, but apparently we've been feeding them too much because I really felt it today.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">The monkeys had a good time being monkeys at the park (we even ran into other monkeys that we knew). On the way home things were going well enough. It was mostly uphill to the park, so it was mostly downhill on the way home. Apparently that wasn't good enough as a mile from home, I decided to (er.. well..) hit the curb and fall over.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">The trailer arm has a spring in it designed to make sure that it stays upright even if the bike falls over (I've unfortunately verified this feature works well in the past). I fell onto the grass, but did it hard enough that I scraped up my elbow and arm somewhat. </span><span style="background-color: white;">The bike was mostly ok with the exception of breaking part of the plastic chain guard. The crankset was half-buried in the dirt and it took me a couple minutes getting everything clean.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i>The broken plastic chain guard.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">You hear a lot about how people in cars are a real problem for bicyclists. I'm very pleased to report in this time I had the exact opposite experience. I had several drivers pull over and make sure everybody was o.k. To anybody who is ever in that situation, please do stop and ask. It's nice to know that most people out there will do the right thing when they need to. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">I picked myself off and dusted off my arm and my leg. On the way home, the big monkey asked if I fell down just like the people on the TV (we have been watching the Tour de France). <i>"Yes baby girl. Exactly like that."</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">The last couple weeks (with this fall and having issues with <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/07/lots-of-commuting-rides-or-how-i-almost.html" target="_blank">my front wheel last week</a>) have been more exciting than I would have hoped. Let's all be careful out there.</span>Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-19084338418271101332012-07-16T19:17:00.001-04:002012-07-16T22:04:49.185-04:00Lots of Commuting Rides (or, How I Almost Lost My Front Wheel)Since getting back from <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/07/vermont-green-mountain-state.html" target="_blank">our trip to Vermont</a>, I've ridden just over a hundred miles (almost all of which to and from work). Most of it hasn't been too exciting, but it's still a nice way to start and end a work day. I modified my to work extra loop to add a couple of very short but quite steep hills. The more the merrier, right?<br />
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Last Saturday <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/200049586" target="_blank">I went for a ride</a> after I put the monkeys to bed. At about 9 miles into the ride I was going down a hill when suddenly the bike started to wobble. I pulled it over to a stop and took a look at the bike. Everything seemed fine. As I was already started up the next hill, I decided to walk the bike up and start riding again. I went just over a mile and had started climbing (the dreaded) Flax Hill road when my front tire locked up.<br />
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I lifted the bike over the guard rail for the sidewalk and flipped the bike so I could take a proper look. The front wheel had come loose and was basically jammed against the frame. Definitely a little scary. I have been using quick release wheels on bicycles for about 30 years off and on (probably a lot more off than on since I wasn't riding much until recently) and I've never had any such problem. I had taken the wheels off the bike when transporting it to and from Vermont, but I had been riding the bike for a week since putting it back together. I don't know if I really just didn't tighten it enough or if it got bumped at the bike rack at work or what. In any case, the moral of the story is, <b>please</b> check your quick release levers regularly to make sure they are good and tight.<br />
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I made sure the wheel was properly attached and safely rode the rest of the way home (without climbing Flax Hill road the second time).<br />
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This weekend Kate and I went out for a ride with the kids. We didn't leave early enough in the morning, however, and it ended up being a bit too hot (and <b>humid</b>), I left Kate and one monkey by the side of the road so I could go home and get the van with the other monkey and pick them up.<br />
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The scenery here in Connecticut is much nicer than what we had in Illinois, although not quite as picturesque as Vermont. But since it's boring to read a post with no pictures, I'll leave you with a shot of the sun rising I took this morning on my way to work.<br />
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<i>A view overlooking the Long Island Sound as the sun rises taken on Bell Island in Rowayton, CT.</i></div>
<br />Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-21992714431833730452012-07-02T19:30:00.001-04:002012-07-02T19:42:12.319-04:00Vermont, The Green Mountain StateLast week I took a vacation from work. Kate and I packed my bike, the dog, and the kids in the car and and we went up to her parent's house in Vermont. We had our niece and nephew stay with us the night before we left, and they and their father (Kate's brother) were also up for the first few days with us (his wife wasn't lucky enough to get vacation for the week).<br />
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Her parents live in Lunenburg, which is on the New Hampshire border an hour south of Canada. It's a very picturesque and rural area. There isn't too much close by, so we didn't really have any plans except for Kate helping out in their garden and me going for an occasional bicycle ride.<br />
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Until last year when we moved to Connecticut, we lived in (very flat) Illinois. Illinois is a great place to learn how to drive a stick-shift cars because you never have to worry about having to start on a hill. It also makes riding a bike very easy. In Connecticut, it is hard to find a place to ride where there isn't a large change in elevation. I'm originally from Illinois and am not used to hills (either walking or biking). I've been working hard <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/04/biggest-hill-i-ever-saw.html" target="_blank">to get used to the hills</a> and been slowly making progress. At least I thought so, until I rode a bicycle in Vermont. And, to be fair, I really shouldn't be surprised that Vermont isn't flat since its name literally translates from French to English as <i>Green Mountain.</i><br />
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When I plan rides, I prefer to get my climbing out of the way early so I can start of working hard and have an easier time of it at the end of the ride. Unfortunately for me, my in-laws live close to the top of a big hill. For my <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192386782" target="_blank">first ride in Vermont</a>, the first two miles I dropped over 480 feet in elevation and averaged just under 25 mph (with a maximum speed of 35 mph) and, <b>boy</b>, was it fun! And the whole way down, I realized I'd be paying for that decent sooner or later. <br />
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The scenery of the ride and the weather were gorgeous.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm0lYyRFO2NkjcbQjlTUgj1SlWpH3Kwol7SKnoZ2bvS0gv3-BTSnVhqwMU0br4EbkeTyQge5yTqHdGXAYd1_HA0FnPtqfjx0smedqaVux6v9mtW9P5TpuH8TTNqmd8P7bXnmpS9Ds5wkA/s1012/IMAG0401.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm0lYyRFO2NkjcbQjlTUgj1SlWpH3Kwol7SKnoZ2bvS0gv3-BTSnVhqwMU0br4EbkeTyQge5yTqHdGXAYd1_HA0FnPtqfjx0smedqaVux6v9mtW9P5TpuH8TTNqmd8P7bXnmpS9Ds5wkA/s640/IMAG0401.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>A gorgeous view of the Connecticut River (which flows very close to our house in Connecticut).</i></div>
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<i>The road.</i></div>
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After the big decent, there was a climb at the 6th mile of about 180 feet over 0.4 miles. It is not the steepest hill I've ever climbed (average grade over 8.5%), but it was quite long (or so I thought). I stopped about half way up the hill for a couple minutes to catch my breath and kept going. Except for this hill, the rest of the route was quite flat. Until the accent back up to the house, that is.</div>
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The climb back up was along the same route as the decent. I averaged 5.8 mph for the last two miles. I stopped once to catch my breath (this time for a few minutes). The average grade wasn't that large (under 4%) <span style="background-color: white;">and my </span><a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-low-can-i-go.html" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">new granny gear</a><span style="background-color: white;"> was very useful here</span><span style="background-color: white;">, </span><span style="background-color: white;">but the length </span><span style="background-color: white;">of the climb was unlike anything I had tried before. I made it, but it really was hard.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">On Monday, I worked on fixing up my in-laws extra bike so my brother-in-law, Alek could go for a ride with me. I had my tools but not my stand, so it wasn't as easy as I would have liked, but I got the bike moving. Alek runs and plays soccer, but hasn't regularly ridden a bike in years. There was a break in the rain, <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/193890306" target="_blank">so off we went</a>. It turns out I didn't do as good a job tuning the gears as I would have hoped. At the bottom of the first hill (about a half-mile down), we realized that we should tune it up more. So we turned around and went back up. This was just under 140 feet in half a mile, This is an average grade of just over 5% and is definitely noticeable (although much less in this case where we hadn't gotten tired doing a long ride first).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">When we got to the top, Alek realized that he didn't really want to do that again, so we didn't bother tuning that bike any more. As I mentioned earlier, they live near the top of the hill. But not at the top. So I figured, I'd ride up to the top. The hill right in front of their house has a 9% incline and the road was still quite wet. I tried several times but could not get started (front wheel slipping). I have dual-sided pedals (meaning I can clip in one one side but don't on the other), so I unclipped my left foot and tried one last time. Unfortunately, I accidentally clipped in my right foot and since I didn't have any momentum, over I went. The worst thing was being embarrassed that fell down. I scraped up my left arm a bit, but not too badly. And I scratched up the plastic on my mirror, but the rest of the bike was fine. Clearly starting on wet steep hills is something I need practice with.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">On Tuesday, I rode almost the same route I had done on Sunday, except that <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/193890303" target="_blank">I did the bottom loop clockwise</a> instead of counter-clockwise. The weather was a lot gloomier this time, but it was dry so there were no traction problems.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Jxhx9etlTzbivJN4jDj6wrNbFxnkTRIwyKN7NMDCtSzzS0r4CxpVvAHFnnU1fXpN7dsgcgRnyfBDDwmVqfs1wWMrJALFbe1JU0KVN29ftYtyEAozo86jGwN67rO7qikURUWO31NEA9I/s1012/IMAG0407.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Jxhx9etlTzbivJN4jDj6wrNbFxnkTRIwyKN7NMDCtSzzS0r4CxpVvAHFnnU1fXpN7dsgcgRnyfBDDwmVqfs1wWMrJALFbe1JU0KVN29ftYtyEAozo86jGwN67rO7qikURUWO31NEA9I/s640/IMAG0407.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i>The same road as above two days later.</i></span></div>
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<i>The Connecticut River several miles closer to my in-laws house.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWbJj7-9vs1PtWG2SoYxIrhTDMwWqKESYH6STPc6jrgZpwkhgfgwjH1xUVl6Ek7zhsJIPynFMVfPatRflNnhi4Ow_HvPPg2noTePq6Ra_OXlCrN-qyRZg_N1DVr6j-JzZWKpIhADyDScc/s1012/IMAG0413.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWbJj7-9vs1PtWG2SoYxIrhTDMwWqKESYH6STPc6jrgZpwkhgfgwjH1xUVl6Ek7zhsJIPynFMVfPatRflNnhi4Ow_HvPPg2noTePq6Ra_OXlCrN-qyRZg_N1DVr6j-JzZWKpIhADyDScc/s640/IMAG0413.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The road.</i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The advantage of doing this is that I didn't have an intermediate large climb to make (instead had a gradual climb and a quick intermediate decent where I hit 39 mph). My overall time was a couple minutes slower over the 16.5 mile course (1 hour 19 minutes compared to 1 hour 17 minutes). </span></div>
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On Thursday I rode a <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/193890288" target="_blank">completely new route</a>. This one didn't start with just a straight drop but had a couple ups mixed in with the downs. Again once I finished the decent, the rest of the route was really quite flat (flatter than what we have here in Connecticut). This ride was a total of just over 26 miles. The first 24 miles were a breeze. The climb of the last two almost did me in.</div>
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On Friday, I did yet another <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/194822046" target="_blank">completely new route</a>, this one with proper rolling hills. So unlike all of the other rides, this one was challenging right off of the bat. It wasn't until 8.5 miles that I had finished the hills and ended up at the bottom altitude.</div>
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After my first ride, Kate and her mother suggested that they meet me at the <i>"Covered Bridge"</i> so that they could take my picture while riding the bike. So instead of climbing back up the hill, I called up Kate just after mile 12 to have her meet me at the bridge. And after the photo-shoot, I just packed the bike in the van and we went back to the house so I could get ready to take my father-in-law out for his birthday dinner (Happy Birthday!). </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcnoIPZ8uVQJxD1MlvOKYMaAp199k324vj_g4uf1sMKsJKHfoMmSyO3JSFRFB31IkdARHflSWqOZjyMctMw5uxWecV_iCLdzlAegHo2QdjzMoKSHmnHXKKjmE4ffHk4l3QiwVAQyaaBgs/s1012/IMAG0420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcnoIPZ8uVQJxD1MlvOKYMaAp199k324vj_g4uf1sMKsJKHfoMmSyO3JSFRFB31IkdARHflSWqOZjyMctMw5uxWecV_iCLdzlAegHo2QdjzMoKSHmnHXKKjmE4ffHk4l3QiwVAQyaaBgs/s640/IMAG0420.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>A view of me riding just after leaving the Covered Bridge.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ObAXnzQP8AGVDJsYQL5JJCWlpAF9Xy4ZW8izEpFxD9o6NwFIDP1M8tN5oTBbNtXEbPNRBAjYvCFsFciI2sO0PFmfU1JdWYq4IbVNaIGxK9pXL_rF4_57JPT0NpFGHyMfyl6tbjcglP0/s1600/me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ObAXnzQP8AGVDJsYQL5JJCWlpAF9Xy4ZW8izEpFxD9o6NwFIDP1M8tN5oTBbNtXEbPNRBAjYvCFsFciI2sO0PFmfU1JdWYq4IbVNaIGxK9pXL_rF4_57JPT0NpFGHyMfyl6tbjcglP0/s640/me.jpg" width="514" /></a></div>
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<i>A close-up.</i></div>
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All in all, it was a great week. Got to spend more time with my family and got a lot of riding in. I'm still not very good at riding up hills, but since practice makes perfect, I'll keep trying.</div>
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<br /></div>Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-33241233930575358102012-06-24T20:37:00.001-04:002013-01-30T18:31:31.042-05:00How Low Can I Go, Part IIA <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-low-can-i-go.html" target="_blank">couple weeks ago</a> I wrote about putting a 22T granny gear on my bike. It is still taking me a while to get used to it as I now have to shift both front and rear derailleurs at the same time so that I am not just spinning when I drop into the tiny gear. I've found that because of this, I use the granny gear less, but that it really does nicely lower my range.<br />
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One problem with this gear, also because the large difference in size between the granny and middle gear (38T), is that the chain will fall off the granny gear when I'm shifting down to it. To stop this problem I bought a (34.9mm) <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YJ2ZSI/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=bike0959-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B004YJ2ZSI&adid=1W3A7863V4E5AWVQTZWV&" target="_blank">N-Gear Jump Stop Chain Guide</a>. Because of the pulley near the bottom bracket for the front derailleur, I couldn't get it quite as far down as I would have wanted, but it does seem to have stopped the problem.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKKF5sRZGsV0gwnB3cP01zyFy3u5DqhGvpZk9n8Zj1DrdAocUldjSWsvcDwEhbeWnHV5GPq3hp_UxX6TezKcZwhbSOWdQqc-0Hiow7q3VvGncryDWaqsyw7f_nsLCfpZpQwGKp_PMEMMU/s1016/IMAG0404.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKKF5sRZGsV0gwnB3cP01zyFy3u5DqhGvpZk9n8Zj1DrdAocUldjSWsvcDwEhbeWnHV5GPq3hp_UxX6TezKcZwhbSOWdQqc-0Hiow7q3VvGncryDWaqsyw7f_nsLCfpZpQwGKp_PMEMMU/s640/IMAG0404.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Chain-stop from the front.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTG2JfSDZBv7qiugoetILfjo1qWUUgUm37vSWxrFUNmomAuXqMqn-NAb4G8U_X7o_2WlUFZlxSe1WuUbmVo6cEG47ImVRXMFqkPEH62uyXZNIzehuZASmPgV55C32EkJAKBqyH8dHJAWU/s1016/IMAG0405.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTG2JfSDZBv7qiugoetILfjo1qWUUgUm37vSWxrFUNmomAuXqMqn-NAb4G8U_X7o_2WlUFZlxSe1WuUbmVo6cEG47ImVRXMFqkPEH62uyXZNIzehuZASmPgV55C32EkJAKBqyH8dHJAWU/s640/IMAG0405.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Chain stop from the side</i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">When I originally put the <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-crankset-installed.html" target="_blank">triple crank on the bike</a>, I found that the chain actually fell off the crankset less frequently than with the original double. With the small granny gear, the problem was worse than with the original double.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">In the same vein as the last post, I moved the seat on my Sofrider as far forward as possible as well as lowered the angle of the seat. Lowering the angle means I've reduced my cross section to the wind. Moving the seat forwards means that hopefully my center of mass is now closer to the front wheel to help with wheel slippage when climbing.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">You'd think that when somebody is writing about this in a blog called </span><i style="background-color: white;">The Recumbent Quant</i><span style="background-color: white;">, there would be a quantitative measurement about how much forward the seat has moved, or by how much the angle has changed. Well, don't worry. I'm disappointed in myself too for not having these things. My guess is that the seat angle changed from 50 degrees to about 45 degrees. Part of me would like to be able to lower the seat even more, but given that I use it to pull a trail-a-bike, I think this is about as low as it can go.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i>New seat position. It few centimeters further forward and probably about 5 degrees more horizontal.</i></span></div>
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I've been riding this way for about a week. I guess the biggest surprise is that there really isn't much of a difference while riding. The handlebars are further away and feel a bit less <i>"cramped"</i> (although it was never really a problem before) and the viewing angle to my bike computer is a bit worse. And I had to extend the boom so the bottom bracket/crankset moved a bit more forward. So I can tell that the seat is in a different position, but the bike basically feels the same when I'm riding it.<br />
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Another possible difference is that by tilting the seat back, I'm able to ride further without <i>"recumbutt"</i> (which is having your butt fall asleep (this is <b>much</b> better than having your <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzxDKo9-f4Q" target="_blank"><i>"what-what" </i>fall asleep</a>).. This is a problem that I used to have on longer rides. I haven't had any symptoms yet, but I've only ridden for just over 16 miles since I made the change. I'll probably eventually add padding to the seat bottom as well.<br />
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I do feel as if I am cruising at a little faster on flat terrain and on my <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192168329" target="_blank">maiden voyage</a>, I hit 39 mph on a course that I've ridden on before without realizing I got anywhere near that fast. And the next day was my fastest every time <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192168312" target="_blank">commuting to work</a>. All of that being said, I'm not really yet convinced how much of a difference it has made (although it's pretty clear that it hasn't gotten any worse). Time will tell.Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-39543192547091591102012-06-09T20:41:00.003-04:002012-06-09T21:02:52.690-04:00How Low Can I Go?When I bought my <a href="http://www.cruzbike.com/sofrider" target="_blank">Cruzbike</a> Sofrider, it came with double front crank (with 48 teeth on the big cog and 34 teeth (48T/34T)) and a rear cassette that goes from 11T to 32T. With this setup, the bike has a range of 26 to 107 gear inches. (For those unfamiliar, <i>"gear inch"</i> refers to equivalent size wheel without any additional gearing. For example, 60 gear inches is equivalent to riding a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny-farthing" target="_blank">large penny-farthing bicycle</a> with a 60" front wheel).<br />
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Almost immediately I realized I wanted more range and although it took me <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/02/almost-installed-new-crank.html" target="_blank">twoattempts</a>, I installed <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-crankset-installed.html" target="_blank">a triple crankset (48T/38T/28T)</a>. This decreased the low end of my gearing to 21.5 gear inches. This was a big improvement and made a big difference, both when pulling a trailer on <i>"regular"</i> hills and when riding solo up <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/04/biggest-hill-i-ever-saw.html" target="_blank">very large hills</a>. It was a big improvement, but it wasn't enough.<br />
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After the <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/05/bloomin-metric-centry-we-made-it.html" target="_blank">Bloomin' Metric Century</a> and the problem I had on that large hill, I started thinking about what I wanted to do. After asking on the <a href="http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/showthread.php?t=85005" target="_blank">'Bent Riders Online forum</a> and deciding that it was at least worth trying, I ordered a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002P74MHS/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00" target="_blank">22T cog</a>. This is equivalent to just below 17 gear inches (or a reduction of a third over the original crankset in terms of number of teeth or gear inches).<br />
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Today, I pulled the crankset, removed the old cog and put on the new one.<br />
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<i>Crankset with the original 28T granny gear.</i></div>
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<i>Crankset with the new 22T granny gear with the original gear to the right. The new gear really does look a loot smaller, doesn't it.</i><br />
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My bike being held on the bike stand after reattaching the crank.</div>
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After taking it for a short test drive, I realized I needed to shorten the chain. The reason is that the diameter of the 22T cog is significantly smaller than the 28T cog and that the chain was too long to be in the small front cog and the higher (meaning smaller in number of teeth and therefore also diameter) gears.<br />
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I ended up removing a couple more links than I meant to because the first time I pushed the pin out of the chain, I pushed it completely out and wasn't able to get it back in. After <a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Fix-a-Broken-Bicycle-Chain" target="_blank">reading online</a>, I realized my mistake and made sure to leave the pin in the second time. I had to break the chain one more time (again, I was smart and careful enough to leave the pin in) because I hadn't routed the chain correctly through the rear derailleur.<br />
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<i>Here I'm using the chain-breaking tool. I recommend removing the wheel before trying this.</i></div>
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<i>The second time I was smart enough to leave the pin in and not push it completely out. The white bag is being held by my daughter so the camera phone would focus on the pin and not the floor.</i></div>
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With the new setup, I can still (barely) make it into the large cog on the crankset and the largest (lowest) cog on the rear cassette. You're not supposed to use this gear and I tried to avoid it before, but I'll try harder now. I can be in the granny gear on the crankset and easily make it to the 5th gear on the cassette. I can make it into the 6th gear, but it isn't entirely happy.<br />
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Since I had installed a new granny gear, I needed hills on which to try it out. After putting the kids to bed, I took the bike out for an <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/187296589" target="_blank">11 mile ride that went up Flax Hill road (one of the worst hills around here) twice</a>. I averaged 14 mph, which is my fastest ride (over 10 miles) ever. Not bad considering I did Flax Hill twice.<br />
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I like the lower granny gear, but the difference between the medium cog on the crankset (38T) and this gear (22T) is quite noticeable. When changing from the second cog to the granny, I also need to move the rear derailleur from the 1st (biggest) gear to 4th or 5th gear if I don't want to spin out (meaning spinning but not turning the wheel because it's moving too quickly). I had similar problems when shifting out of the granny gear and if I didn't change from a high rear gear (say, 5th) in the granny gear to a much lower rear gear for the middle cog on the crankset, I found that it was too hard to peddle.<br />
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The first time I went of Flax Hill road, I did use the smallest gear on the bike, but found that I didn't really need to (the <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/player/187296589" target="_blank">GPS claims my speed</a> was as low as 3.6 mph here). The second time I went up the hill, I found the lowest gear quite comfortable although for that particular hill, I would have been quite o.k. in the next highest gear. Here the GPS doesn't report as low a speed, it does show me averaging 4.5 MPH for most of the last part of the hill,<br />
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For now, I think I'll go up a size to the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shimano-FC-M660-Chainring-64x24T-Speed/dp/B005DU242Y/ref=sr_1_3?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1339288646&sr=1-3" target="_blank">24T ring</a> as the granny gear on the crankset. In the future, I'll consider replacing the middle 38T chanring with something smaller (say, a 34T). Definitely learned a lot playing with this. More tweaking coming soon.Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-43196480147455740572012-06-03T16:08:00.002-04:002012-06-03T16:42:02.938-04:00Housatonic Rail-TrailA friend of mine, Oguz, recommended the <a href="http://www.traillink.com/trail-maps/housatonic-rail-trail-in-trumbull-(pequonnock-valley-greenway).aspx" target="_blank">Housatonic Rail Trail</a> <span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(part of the Pequonnock Valley Greenway) </span></span>as a nice place to take the family to ride. So I folded up the trail-a-bike and the trailer and put them in the back of the wagon, put the bike rack and the two adult bikes on the car, and away we went. (O.k. It took a bit longer than I made it sound, but let's not dwell on how slowly I pack cars...)<br />
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The link above shows parking around <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=41.28058,-73.223019&hl=en&num=1&t=m&z=15&lci=bike" target="_blank">here</a>, so that's where we went. When we got there, we found something like a parking lot that was full. We found a spot and only realized later when we came back and was the only car parked where we were that we saw the sign saying we had parked in a tow away zone (our car was still there with no problems).<br />
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The area was beautiful with great tree coverage for almost the the entire ride. The downside of great tree coverage is that it messes with the GPS ability to get a signal, so the<a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/185255592" target="_blank"> route it traced out is somewhat deficient</a>. But that's a trade-off I'll gladly make.<br />
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Where we parked was basically in the middle of the trail, so we randomly decided to start by going south. The trail is mostly paved although it's almost gravel in some places (but I had no problems with traction or pulling the big monkey on the trail-a-bike) and it was pretty much a soft decent until the end of the trail. If we do it again, we'll give serious thoughts to driving to the <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=41.247483,-73.200531&hl=en&num=1&t=m&z=14&lci=bike" target="_blank">end of the trail</a> and parking on the street (I saw cars parked here). I personally like to start at the bottom so I can end at the bottom of a big hill.<br />
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We turns around heading north, rode back to our car, got some food and kept going north. About a mile north of our car, we saw picnic tables (and restrooms), so we stopped and had lunch. (Or, well, we didn't really pack lunch, so we had chips and pears). <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=41.286546,-73.227482&spn=0.01951,0.042272&num=1&t=m&lci=bike&z=15" target="_blank">They also have parking here</a> (more so than where we had parked), so this is another viable choice for starting the ride as well.<br />
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<i>The view of the river from our picnic table.</i></div>
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<i>Kate and the monkeys looking at (but mostly not falling into) the river.</i></div>
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<i>The river and the trail on which we had ridden.\</i></div>
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<i>The monkeys posing in front of the bikes.</i></div>
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<i>The monkeys and me.</i></div>
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After lunch, we kept going north for a bit longer. Somewhere around 6.5 total miles into the ride, we had a choice on the trail to take what I thought was a fork right or keep on the main trail left. We stayed left, but then we soon ended up right next to an apartment complex. I'm not sure if the path kept on going at that point or not because we turned around and went back to the car.<br />
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The trail was pretty busy today. Lots of people walking pushing strollers and walking their dogs. Many others out on bikes. But there were no problems either safely passing people or safely being past by other bicyclists. It was narrow in places and there were certain segments that I wouldn't have been as happy riding if it had been raining, but today there were no issues.<br />
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When we got to the car, the big monkey was quite tired as she really had pedaled most (or at least a lot) of the way. The little monkey was a lot more energetic as he just sits and watches his mom pedal him up the hills. When we were almost ready to leave, we heard that somebody on the trail was having trouble and that an ambulance was on the way. We watched as they <b>very slowly</b> removed the car blocks on the path. I certainly hope whomever was waiting for them was stable, because that was not the demonstration of speed or hurriedness that I would have hoped for in a true emergency.<br />
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It took us a little bit longer to pack the car than we would have liked, didn't quite have the right food for lunch, etc. But none of that mattered today. Oguz was right. This is a lovely place to take the family for a ride and we all had a wonderful time.</div>Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13395059644554618.post-28309942436693469162012-05-27T14:23:00.001-04:002012-09-06T20:19:39.933-04:00To The BeachIn the week following the <a href="http://recumbentquant.blogspot.com/2012/05/bloomin-metric-centry-we-made-it.html" target="_blank">Bloomin' Metric Century</a> it rained every day. Saturday, Kate and I had one of our long time friends and her son come down for a night. We decided to go out to the Sherwood Island beach and instead of paying for the second car to get in (we've got a season pass on Kate's car), we had the two of them go in Kate's car and <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/182314005" target="_blank">I rode to the beach</a>.<br />
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I've ridden to the beach from Andrew's house, but since that route is longer (to Andrew's hosue first and then to the beach) and since I wasn't positive I knew the way, I <a href="http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1223526" target="_blank">mapped the ride</a> with RideWithGps.com and loaded it into my Garmin Edge 305 (which only stores cue sheets and not the trace of the route). <br />
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The ride to the beach was pretty easy. The beach is 75 feet lower than my house and the hills to the beach are definitely noticeable, but not too bad. Once at the beach, we spent a lovely two hours in and near the water. After about 90 minutes, we heard a siren from one of the boats on the water, probably to warn them about the lightening that was seen not too far into the distance. That probably should have been my clue to leave then. But since the weather was still nice where we were (albeit a bit overcast), we I stayed for another half an hour.<br />
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The ride back started off quite well. Within about 5 minutes, however, it started to rain. It never rained too hard, but it still made the ride a little bit harder. At about 12 miles into the ride (or 3.4 miles from the beach), I started coughing hard enough that I had to pull over at the side of the rode and rest for a few minutes. I don't know if I'm still not just over my cold or I've got allergies or what, but I really could have done without that. (I don't know that I'm allergic to anything outside, but there was so much cottenwood out that it looked like it had snowed.)<br />
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One of the reasons that Andrew and I almost always started the rides at his house and ended at my house is that there is a quite substantial hill from his house to my house. Unfortunately, coming back from the beach meant that I'd have to climb the same hill. I tried a <a href="http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1223554" target="_blank">slightly different route on the way back</a>, but as it turns out (either because I didn't follow the route exactly or because I didn't re-route it as well as I'd hoped), I made it so I ended climbing up more than I would have the original route.<br />
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I made it half way up the big hill and decided to take a break. Unfortunately, since it had been raining the road was particularly slippery and it literally took me half a dozen attempts before I could get started. But I did and the rest of the hill and ride went without any incident.<br />
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It was good to get back out on the bike after a week off. It seems weird not to be training anymore (<i>"Dude, that was just for 8 weeks! Get over it!"</i>), but for now, it's just riding for riding. <br />
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After I put the kids to bed tonight I went out for <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/182755323" target="_blank">a quick ride of 11 miles</a> (averaging 13.7 mph). I didn't have any coughing problems tonight and I really pushed myself pretty hard (to the beach yesterday I averaged 12.9 mph for just under 9 miles and home was slower).<br />
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I don't have any beach related pictures, so instead, I'll leave you with this cartoon I found out there on the intertubes.<br />
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Charles Plagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712364480173181475noreply@blogger.com1