I successfully replaced the front derailleur shifter after the cable snapped two weeks ago. I bought a set of SRAM X.4 trigger shifters 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.
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, on Friday my total distance was just under 17 miles 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).
One new thing I've been trying is a technique called bridging (talked about both Ak-tux in the comments of this blog post and in this 'Bent Riders Online (BROL) Forum post). 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 barely 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 I lowered my seat angle.
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.
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 "pull myself up" 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).
There's another post on BROL 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, I hypothesized 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.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Bad Bike-Ma?
July has been a tough month for bicycling. First, my front wheel almost fell off. Next, I fell over (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 ride pulling the little monkey in the trailer. 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.
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).
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.
See if you can spot the wild turkeys? I took the picture and it still took me a couple of minutes to find one.
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.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Trips 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). 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).
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 quick ride. 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. 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.)
Today I packed both monkeys in the trailer and took them to a nearby park. Last week 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 big monkey on the trail-a-bike. But pulling them both in the trailer was actually kind of demoralizing as it was a lot harder than I remembered. This ride only had 400 feet of elevation gain, but apparently we've been feeding them too much because I really felt it today.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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). "Yes baby girl. Exactly like that."
The last couple weeks (with this fall and having issues with my front wheel last week) have been more exciting than I would have hoped. Let's all be careful out there.
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 quick ride. 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. 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.)
A view of the rode in Bethel just after I turned around.
Today I packed both monkeys in the trailer and took them to a nearby park. Last week 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 big monkey on the trail-a-bike. But pulling them both in the trailer was actually kind of demoralizing as it was a lot harder than I remembered. This ride only had 400 feet of elevation gain, but apparently we've been feeding them too much because I really felt it today.
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.
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. 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.
The broken plastic chain guard.
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.
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). "Yes baby girl. Exactly like that."
The last couple weeks (with this fall and having issues with my front wheel last week) have been more exciting than I would have hoped. Let's all be careful out there.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Lots of Commuting Rides
(or, How I Almost Lost My Front Wheel)
Since getting back from our trip to Vermont, 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?
Last Saturday I went for a ride 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.
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, please check your quick release levers regularly to make sure they are good and tight.
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).
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 humid), 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.
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.
Last Saturday I went for a ride 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.
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, please check your quick release levers regularly to make sure they are good and tight.
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).
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 humid), 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.
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.
A view overlooking the Long Island Sound as the sun rises taken on Bell Island in Rowayton, CT.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Vermont, The Green Mountain State
Last 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).
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.
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 to get used to the hills 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 Green Mountain.
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 first ride in Vermont, 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, boy, was it fun! And the whole way down, I realized I'd be paying for that decent sooner or later.
The scenery of the ride and the weather were gorgeous.
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.
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 to get used to the hills 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 Green Mountain.
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 first ride in Vermont, 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, boy, was it fun! And the whole way down, I realized I'd be paying for that decent sooner or later.
The scenery of the ride and the weather were gorgeous.
A gorgeous view of the Connecticut River (which flows very close to our house in Connecticut).
The road.
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.
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%) and my new granny gear was very useful here, but the length of the climb was unlike anything I had tried before. I made it, but it really was hard.
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, so off we went. 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).
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.
On Tuesday, I rode almost the same route I had done on Sunday, except that I did the bottom loop clockwise instead of counter-clockwise. The weather was a lot gloomier this time, but it was dry so there were no traction problems.
The same road as above two days later.
The Connecticut River several miles closer to my in-laws house.
The road.
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).
On Thursday I rode a completely new route. 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.
On Friday, I did yet another completely new route, 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.
After my first ride, Kate and her mother suggested that they meet me at the "Covered Bridge" 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!).
A view of me riding just after leaving the Covered Bridge.
A close-up.
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.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
How Low Can I Go, Part II
A couple weeks ago 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.
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) N-Gear Jump Stop Chain Guide. 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.
When I originally put the triple crank on the bike, 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.
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.
You'd think that when somebody is writing about this in a blog called The Recumbent Quant, 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.
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 "cramped" (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.
Another possible difference is that by tilting the seat back, I'm able to ride further without "recumbutt" (which is having your butt fall asleep (this is much better than having your "what-what" fall asleep).. 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.
I do feel as if I am cruising at a little faster on flat terrain and on my maiden voyage, 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 commuting to work. 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.
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) N-Gear Jump Stop Chain Guide. 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.
Chain-stop from the front.
Chain stop from the side
When I originally put the triple crank on the bike, 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.
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.
You'd think that when somebody is writing about this in a blog called The Recumbent Quant, 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.
New seat position. It few centimeters further forward and probably about 5 degrees more horizontal.
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 "cramped" (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.
Another possible difference is that by tilting the seat back, I'm able to ride further without "recumbutt" (which is having your butt fall asleep (this is much better than having your "what-what" fall asleep).. 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.
I do feel as if I am cruising at a little faster on flat terrain and on my maiden voyage, 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 commuting to work. 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.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
How Low Can I Go?
When I bought my Cruzbike 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, "gear inch" refers to equivalent size wheel without any additional gearing. For example, 60 gear inches is equivalent to riding a large penny-farthing bicycle with a 60" front wheel).
Almost immediately I realized I wanted more range and although it took me twoattempts, I installed a triple crankset (48T/38T/28T). 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 "regular" hills and when riding solo up very large hills. It was a big improvement, but it wasn't enough.
After the Bloomin' Metric Century and the problem I had on that large hill, I started thinking about what I wanted to do. After asking on the 'Bent Riders Online forum and deciding that it was at least worth trying, I ordered a 22T cog. 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).
Today, I pulled the crankset, removed the old cog and put on the new one.
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.
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 reading online, 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.
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.
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 11 mile ride that went up Flax Hill road (one of the worst hills around here) twice. I averaged 14 mph, which is my fastest ride (over 10 miles) ever. Not bad considering I did Flax Hill twice.
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.
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 GPS claims my speed 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,
For now, I think I'll go up a size to the 24T ring 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.
Almost immediately I realized I wanted more range and although it took me twoattempts, I installed a triple crankset (48T/38T/28T). 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 "regular" hills and when riding solo up very large hills. It was a big improvement, but it wasn't enough.
After the Bloomin' Metric Century and the problem I had on that large hill, I started thinking about what I wanted to do. After asking on the 'Bent Riders Online forum and deciding that it was at least worth trying, I ordered a 22T cog. 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).
Today, I pulled the crankset, removed the old cog and put on the new one.
Crankset with the original 28T granny gear.
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.
My bike being held on the bike stand after reattaching the crank.
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.
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 reading online, 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.
Here I'm using the chain-breaking tool. I recommend removing the wheel before trying this.
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.
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.
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 11 mile ride that went up Flax Hill road (one of the worst hills around here) twice. I averaged 14 mph, which is my fastest ride (over 10 miles) ever. Not bad considering I did Flax Hill twice.
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.
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 GPS claims my speed 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,
For now, I think I'll go up a size to the 24T ring 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.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Housatonic Rail-Trail
A friend of mine, Oguz, recommended the Housatonic Rail Trail (part of the Pequonnock Valley Greenway) 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...)
The link above shows parking around here, 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).
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 route it traced out is somewhat deficient. But that's a trade-off I'll gladly make.
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 end of the trail 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.
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). They also have parking here (more so than where we had parked), so this is another viable choice for starting the ride as well.
The link above shows parking around here, 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).
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 route it traced out is somewhat deficient. But that's a trade-off I'll gladly make.
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 end of the trail 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.
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). They also have parking here (more so than where we had parked), so this is another viable choice for starting the ride as well.
The view of the river from our picnic table.
Kate and the monkeys looking at (but mostly not falling into) the river.
The river and the trail on which we had ridden.\
The monkeys posing in front of the bikes.
The monkeys and me.
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.
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.
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 very slowly 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.
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.
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.
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 very slowly 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.
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.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
To The Beach
In the week following the Bloomin' Metric Century 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 I rode to the beach.
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 mapped the ride with RideWithGps.com and loaded it into my Garmin Edge 305 (which only stores cue sheets and not the trace of the route).
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.
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.)
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 slightly different route on the way back, 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.
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.
It was good to get back out on the bike after a week off. It seems weird not to be training anymore ("Dude, that was just for 8 weeks! Get over it!"), but for now, it's just riding for riding.
After I put the kids to bed tonight I went out for a quick ride of 11 miles (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).
I don't have any beach related pictures, so instead, I'll leave you with this cartoon I found out there on the intertubes.
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 mapped the ride with RideWithGps.com and loaded it into my Garmin Edge 305 (which only stores cue sheets and not the trace of the route).
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.
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.)
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 slightly different route on the way back, 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.
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.
It was good to get back out on the bike after a week off. It seems weird not to be training anymore ("Dude, that was just for 8 weeks! Get over it!"), but for now, it's just riding for riding.
After I put the kids to bed tonight I went out for a quick ride of 11 miles (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).
I don't have any beach related pictures, so instead, I'll leave you with this cartoon I found out there on the intertubes.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Bloomin' Metric Centry: We Did It!
They say that every body who clips into their pedals eventually falls because they don't unclip in time. I knew this and even believed this before I ever clipped in. And for two months, I've managed to ride without falling. Until the century. But more on that later...
Up until I moved to Connecticut last June, I hadn't ridden a bicycle for more than 12 miles in well over 20 years. When I moved here, I started riding my folding bike chasing my friend, Tom, when he went on his runs. I started riding other bikes I own as well. In February, I decided to buy a recumbent bicycle, the Cruzbike Sofrider.
After about 300 miles on the new bike and a long bike ride of 17 miles, I decided to try and ride the Bloomin' Metric Century (100 km - 62 miles). For the past eight weeks, my friend Andrew and I have been training for the Bloomin' Metric Century with my friend Andrew. We came up with a training schedule and followed it pretty well. During the 8 weeks, I was supposed to ride a total of 430 miles; I did just under 480. As far as the long rides, we always did at least as much as we were supposed to do.
That being said, last week's training ride did not go terribly well. Both Andrew and I felt quite tired at the end, and we knew that the century would be another 15+ miles more than that ride. Up until that training ride, each new ride had been getting easier and easier. Last week's ride was a little longer, a bit more clmbing (2200 ft total), but none of those statistics were majorly different. My bike computer told me I burned 5800 calories, where as the previous high was 5100. So that was definitely more. During this ride, there were more sustained climbs.
The week before the ride it was raining most of the week. I did get a few miles in on Thursday and Friday, but quite a bit less than usual. On Friday, Andrew sent me a few links on carb loading. They all said that for my weight I was supposed to eat basically a kilogram of pasta (over 2 pounds). I ate a pound of potato gnocchi and some pizza for dinner, so I got close. I don't know how much it helped, but I did avoid crashing from low sugar during the ride.
A couple days before the ride, the organizers of the century, the Sound Cyclists Bicycle Club, sent out the route for the century (which I uploaded to Ride with GPS). This ride has over 4000 feet of climbing, but when I looked, I swear that it told me there was a maximum grade of less than 2.5% (when I look now, it says 7.5%; update: I just got an email from Ride with GPS that said that they recently fixed the maximum grade: "Even the max grade is a fairly reliable number now!" so maybe I wasn't seeing things after all). So there was a lot of climbing, but I thought, nothing too steep. O.k. So maybe we would be o.k. after all.
The day of the ride, the weather was perfect. When it was time to start riding, it was just warm enough to ride without a jacket. And while it warmed up, it never got too hot. We arrived at Sherwood Island (the start) by 6:45 and man! were there a lot of road bicycles (bicycles with the drop handle bars). Miles and miles of bicycles. I've never seen so many close up. And we're not talking about cheap bikes either. My guess is the average bike cost 2 grand. The event had 2500 people registered, so that's (back of the enveloppe) 5 million dollars of bicycles (give or take). And I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that's low. We saw more recumbent and tandem bicycles than "regular" hybrid/comfort/moutain bicycles. And almost everybody was wearing their Sunday spandex best. This event was full of people who ride their bicycles a lot.
There were several interesting bicycles. A recumbent trike and long wheel based recumbent bicycles were there (so I wasn't the only recumbent). There were at least half a dozen tandems including a family riding a triple tandem bicycle pulling a trailer (and they completed the 75k route!)
The line for registration was long, but it started to move fairly quickly just after 7 and we were on the road by 7:30.
The route was well marked and well laid out. There was very little traffic and the route was very attractive and scenic pretty much the whole way. The arrows they used to mark the path didn't have any words on them which usually wasn't a problem, but there was at least one case where a realtor set up an open house and had an arrow that looked just like the bike path arrow and some people did follow it. (My recommendation for next year would be to just put SCBC (Sound Cyclists Bicycle Club) letters on the arrow.) The food stops were well stocked and run.
Most everybody there was quite friendly and encouraging. It really was a great atmosphere. There were a few riders who insisted on both passing a bit too closely to the other riders or wouldn't let the cars pass when they really ought to have.
Just before the first rest stop at 20 miles, I was riding up a fairly steep hill, probably moving at around 5 mph. I can't really tell you what happened, but one moment I was riding and the next I was lying, still clipped in to my bicycle, on this very comfortable grass. Andrew, who was behind me, says I hit the curb. I can't say any differently. I've been clipping into the pedals for about 2 months now and I find that it helps a lot with the control of my bike. I've almost fallen several times and I haven't enjoyed that part of it at all. But it turns out that falling (at least as I did it) is actually kind of fun. (O.k. That might be a slight exaggeration).
We got plenty of food, drink, and rest at the rest stop and continued on our way. At about 34 miles, we decided to stop and catch our breath. We stopped at the bottom of a fairly impressive hill. After a bit, we started up this monster.
This hill was not as steep as "the biggest hill I ever saw," but it was a lot longer. After a couple hundred meters, we saw a sign that said "8% grade, summit in 1 km." About half way up the hill, my heart rate was 170 and I stopped to catch my breath. After letting my pulse drop a bit, I was ready to go. The only problem, on very steep slopes, my front wheel slips (issues with having front wheel drive). Andrew literally got off of his bike and gave me a push for a couple of feet (basically throwing me up the mountain). Worked extremely well and we both made it to the top without further incident.
At about 37 miles, we had a long beautiful open, straight, downhill ride. Part of a decent of over 250 feet, I found myself cruising along at 35 mph. At that point, I stopped pedaling and still managed to hit 42 mph. There were several nice downhill stretches where I really cruising.
On the downhills where there was room to move, I was never passed by anybody going faster than I was. The up hills was a completely different story. My bike was probably one of the heaviest (non-tandem) bikes there (probably almost tipping the scale at 50 pounds including the Camelbak water bladder, lock, rack, etc). I did manage to ride up all of the hills (which is better than many of the participants. But I'm consistently one of the slowest climbers. I'm (mostly) trying to live up to Eddy Merckx's "Don't buy upgrades; ride up grades." quote, but I'm starting to be curious as to how much a lighter bike would help.
The final rest stop was at just over 50 miles. With the end in reach, we were feeling pretty good. We finished our ride at just about 1:30 p.m., just a bit over 6 hours after we started. We had an average moving speed of 12.2 mph (which is better than last week) including not only almost 50% more miles, but more than 50% more climbing than our longest training run. We did it!
Up until I moved to Connecticut last June, I hadn't ridden a bicycle for more than 12 miles in well over 20 years. When I moved here, I started riding my folding bike chasing my friend, Tom, when he went on his runs. I started riding other bikes I own as well. In February, I decided to buy a recumbent bicycle, the Cruzbike Sofrider.
After about 300 miles on the new bike and a long bike ride of 17 miles, I decided to try and ride the Bloomin' Metric Century (100 km - 62 miles). For the past eight weeks, my friend Andrew and I have been training for the Bloomin' Metric Century with my friend Andrew. We came up with a training schedule and followed it pretty well. During the 8 weeks, I was supposed to ride a total of 430 miles; I did just under 480. As far as the long rides, we always did at least as much as we were supposed to do.
The table of what the plan was and what I actually did. I was sick for part of week 7 so I missed the mileage for that week.
That being said, last week's training ride did not go terribly well. Both Andrew and I felt quite tired at the end, and we knew that the century would be another 15+ miles more than that ride. Up until that training ride, each new ride had been getting easier and easier. Last week's ride was a little longer, a bit more clmbing (2200 ft total), but none of those statistics were majorly different. My bike computer told me I burned 5800 calories, where as the previous high was 5100. So that was definitely more. During this ride, there were more sustained climbs.
The week before the ride it was raining most of the week. I did get a few miles in on Thursday and Friday, but quite a bit less than usual. On Friday, Andrew sent me a few links on carb loading. They all said that for my weight I was supposed to eat basically a kilogram of pasta (over 2 pounds). I ate a pound of potato gnocchi and some pizza for dinner, so I got close. I don't know how much it helped, but I did avoid crashing from low sugar during the ride.
A couple days before the ride, the organizers of the century, the Sound Cyclists Bicycle Club, sent out the route for the century (which I uploaded to Ride with GPS). This ride has over 4000 feet of climbing, but when I looked, I swear that it told me there was a maximum grade of less than 2.5% (when I look now, it says 7.5%; update: I just got an email from Ride with GPS that said that they recently fixed the maximum grade: "Even the max grade is a fairly reliable number now!" so maybe I wasn't seeing things after all). So there was a lot of climbing, but I thought, nothing too steep. O.k. So maybe we would be o.k. after all.
The day of the ride, the weather was perfect. When it was time to start riding, it was just warm enough to ride without a jacket. And while it warmed up, it never got too hot. We arrived at Sherwood Island (the start) by 6:45 and man! were there a lot of road bicycles (bicycles with the drop handle bars). Miles and miles of bicycles. I've never seen so many close up. And we're not talking about cheap bikes either. My guess is the average bike cost 2 grand. The event had 2500 people registered, so that's (back of the enveloppe) 5 million dollars of bicycles (give or take). And I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that's low. We saw more recumbent and tandem bicycles than "regular" hybrid/comfort/moutain bicycles. And almost everybody was wearing their Sunday spandex best. This event was full of people who ride their bicycles a lot.
There were several interesting bicycles. A recumbent trike and long wheel based recumbent bicycles were there (so I wasn't the only recumbent). There were at least half a dozen tandems including a family riding a triple tandem bicycle pulling a trailer (and they completed the 75k route!)
The triple tandem bike pulling a trailer. The family riding this bike was wearing jerseys that said "Team Zombie"
The line for registration was long, but it started to move fairly quickly just after 7 and we were on the road by 7:30.
A picture of me waiting in line in my unshaven glory.
The line.
The route was well marked and well laid out. There was very little traffic and the route was very attractive and scenic pretty much the whole way. The arrows they used to mark the path didn't have any words on them which usually wasn't a problem, but there was at least one case where a realtor set up an open house and had an arrow that looked just like the bike path arrow and some people did follow it. (My recommendation for next year would be to just put SCBC (Sound Cyclists Bicycle Club) letters on the arrow.) The food stops were well stocked and run.
Most everybody there was quite friendly and encouraging. It really was a great atmosphere. There were a few riders who insisted on both passing a bit too closely to the other riders or wouldn't let the cars pass when they really ought to have.
Just before the first rest stop at 20 miles, I was riding up a fairly steep hill, probably moving at around 5 mph. I can't really tell you what happened, but one moment I was riding and the next I was lying, still clipped in to my bicycle, on this very comfortable grass. Andrew, who was behind me, says I hit the curb. I can't say any differently. I've been clipping into the pedals for about 2 months now and I find that it helps a lot with the control of my bike. I've almost fallen several times and I haven't enjoyed that part of it at all. But it turns out that falling (at least as I did it) is actually kind of fun. (O.k. That might be a slight exaggeration).
The first rest-stop.
Still the first rest stop.
We got plenty of food, drink, and rest at the rest stop and continued on our way. At about 34 miles, we decided to stop and catch our breath. We stopped at the bottom of a fairly impressive hill. After a bit, we started up this monster.
This hill was not as steep as "the biggest hill I ever saw," but it was a lot longer. After a couple hundred meters, we saw a sign that said "8% grade, summit in 1 km." About half way up the hill, my heart rate was 170 and I stopped to catch my breath. After letting my pulse drop a bit, I was ready to go. The only problem, on very steep slopes, my front wheel slips (issues with having front wheel drive). Andrew literally got off of his bike and gave me a push for a couple of feet (basically throwing me up the mountain). Worked extremely well and we both made it to the top without further incident.
At about 37 miles, we had a long beautiful open, straight, downhill ride. Part of a decent of over 250 feet, I found myself cruising along at 35 mph. At that point, I stopped pedaling and still managed to hit 42 mph. There were several nice downhill stretches where I really cruising.
On the downhills where there was room to move, I was never passed by anybody going faster than I was. The up hills was a completely different story. My bike was probably one of the heaviest (non-tandem) bikes there (probably almost tipping the scale at 50 pounds including the Camelbak water bladder, lock, rack, etc). I did manage to ride up all of the hills (which is better than many of the participants. But I'm consistently one of the slowest climbers. I'm (mostly) trying to live up to Eddy Merckx's "Don't buy upgrades; ride up grades." quote, but I'm starting to be curious as to how much a lighter bike would help.
The final rest stop was at just over 50 miles. With the end in reach, we were feeling pretty good. We finished our ride at just about 1:30 p.m., just a bit over 6 hours after we started. We had an average moving speed of 12.2 mph (which is better than last week) including not only almost 50% more miles, but more than 50% more climbing than our longest training run. We did it!
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