Nine Days

For those of you who live nearby, you know that it has been over 100 for the past week or so. The temperature has finally started to come back down and I hoped back on my bike yesterday to ride. I managed 7.78 miles without too much trouble but I had some people I was supposed to be meeting further in town so I hoped on the MAX. It wasn't a bad ride, fairly flat, but I could tell that I have definitely lost some of my conditioning. I logged the ride and found that I have been off of my bike for nine days total. I tried riding the trainer I bought but the AC in my house doesn't cool it down that well and it was just too hot. It is also harder than just riding on the road, on the road you can coast down a hill or for a ways on a flat. There is no coasting with a resistance trainer, you stop pedaling and the wheel stops. Next time the temp gets too extreme I am going to suffer through using the trainer anyway. The ride to work this morning was hard, and definitely not one of my best elapsed times either.

Projects

I have a couple of project bikes in the works. Mainly to practice my bike wrenching skills but also because I enjoy doing this sort of thing. The first is a Huffy frame that I am upgrading some of the parts on, it's most likely not worth it but when done it should be a decent bike for someone to get around on at least. The second bike project is one that I picked up last weekend. I drove by a garage sale after doing a tow and came across this lil gem of an antique bike for five dollars.
The plan is to get a new rear wheel that has an internal shifting hub, most likely a three speed. Right now the rear hub looks like a good old fashioned coaster brake deal but it isn't, it freewheels and there are no brakes so I will need to add some. Of course neither tire holds air and it has one metal pedal and one plastic pedal. The current paint job isn't too bad, but it will be replaced in favor of a green color my wife likes. She also wants some aliens and ufo's on the bike somehow. I am hoping to find someone who can do that with a little airbrushing. The white seat stays, and the swept back handlebars as well. Going to try and find a rack for the back and a wicker basket for the front.

Never jump on the bike without eating first.

I did my slowest ride to work in weeks today. I woke up late and didn't have time for breakfast. I averaged a little over 8 miles per hour to work. I usually average 10. On my way home from work I usually average 12-13 miles per hour. The new bicycle computer is helpful this way, I can keep on eye on my overall effort for a ride. Of course I have gotten to the point where I can tell at the start of a ride if I am going to have the strength to push myself hard as well. This morning I didn't have it in me, of course I threw myself out the door in a hurry because I woke up late as well.

So far this year I cycled 3.1 miles in March ( I got my bike at the end of March), 53.4 miles in April, 102.6 miles in May, and 132.6 miles in June. Hopefully I will be able to clock at least 130 miles for July or more.

Taj and I have another foster dog at the house, we just picked her up yesterday.



Her name is Suzie Q and the poor girl has been neglected and left out of doors most of her life. The paper work from Mult Animal Control lists her as a Labrador mix. We think possibly Shar Pei as she has a wrinkly neck sort of like a Shar Pei would have. She is a sweet heart but a bit shy, once she warms up to a person she loves to cuddle. Hopefully we will be able to get her some training as she has none at this time, at least she seems to have going to the bathroom outdoors down. At least so far. We put her in a kennel to sleep last night in our living room, she whined and huffed but then settled down after a few minutes. Taj had gone to bed and I sat up surfing the net and watching some tv for awhile. After I got up and went to bed she started barking, she kept barking for an hour. I don't think she has ever been left alone in a kennel before. The elderly couple that had her bred her and sold the puppies, that's pretty much all she has known her whole life. She did actually start playing with Obi after being at the house for a few hours.

Taj and I are so proud of Obi right now it's unbelievable. Who knew that this big dork of a dog could do so well with other dogs that were so mal-adjusted. He has been giving Suzie her space unless Suzie acts like she wants to play. he actually had her running back and forth in the yard last night. Suzie Q seems to be adjusting well so far, let's hope this trend continues.

Busy busy busy

I have been super busy the past week or so getting my house ready for a couple of BBQ's. Consequently I missed doing my usual 20 mile ride last week. Thankfully I have been able to keep going on my regular 3 mile per day rides back and forth to work though. In fact since I got the new rear wheel I have had no troubles with the bike at all. I also just recently purchased a bicycle computer to keep better track of my miles and distance traveled. I have noticed that it goes a little bonkers if I go over a traffic sensor though, there is no way I have reached a max speed of 35 miles per hour on my regular ride. It doesn't seem to throw off the total distance or time when it happens. The bike computer I got is the Protege 9.0 from Planet Bike.

To date I have 291.4 miles ridden and have lost nearly 40 pounds.

Finishing my first 30 mile ride

Jim finishing his first 30 mile ride, originally uploaded by tajmilne.

My wife was waiting at the finish line as I came in from my longest ride to date. I had a lot of help on this one from other cyclists. My son, some friends and the great people I met through NW Butts on Bikes. This was my first time riding with anyone from the meetup group but they were very encouraging and a lot of fun to hang out with.

We rode from Gresham's Main City Park (not a very inventive name I know) all the way in to Renovo Bicycles at SE 8th and Harrison in Portland. This is where the make the most beautiful bikes I have ever seen and they make them out of wood. I have set a goal for my weight loss of course and one of these bikes will be my reward for reaching that goal. Ken, the owner of Renovo, showed us around his shop and let us take some of his bikes up and down the block to test them out. Ken was very happy to have us as visitors and showed us all around the shop, even ran the cnc machine to make a couple of wooden chain stays just so we could see it in action. My wife even joined in the fun and took one of his bamboo commuter bikes up and down the block, she wants one now. If I am not careful she will own a Renovo before I do!

Longest ride to date and other craziness

Last Wednesday I went for my longest ride to date. A little over 20 miles in total. I was worried the entire way about breaking another spoke of course, thankfully that didn't happen. I started out at my work, it was a bit over 80 degrees at the time. My destination was Guardian Games down on SE 3rd and Pine in Portland. I rode in to Gresham's Main City Park to use the Springwater Trail Corridor for a good distance. The heat was a bit brutal to say the least. I had worked through one of my water bottles by the time I hopped off the trail at 92nd. From there on I made my way over city streets for the rest of the route. I began slowing down, running out of gas. I stopped several times to take a breather. By the time I was on the last couple of miles I was on the absolute lowest gears possible...and they were hard to turn. I bonked hard. Thankfully my wife was already at Guardian Games for her usual Wednesday night ladies game. I put my bike on the rack she has on her car and drug myself in to the store. One of the couches in front of the video games was empty and I flopped down, I think I could have fallen asleep right there and then I was so tired. I took Thursday and Friday off from riding.

Sunday I tested out a new toy called a Walky Dog. It's a tool that you attach to your seat post in order to walk (more like run) your dog alongside as you ride. My wife has been using it to exercise our dog Obi for the last few days, Sunday was my turn to run him a bit. Things went pretty well our first lap around the neighborhood. The second time around there was a stray dog in the middle of the street. For those of you that know Obi you also know how much he is interested in other dogs. Obi listens to Taj better than he listens to me, she spends more time with him and does more of his training. I told Obi to "leave it", that's his command to not go over to whatever it is we don't want him to go look at. He didn't listen. Now the Walky Dog is a metal bar that sticks out to the side of the bike, given sufficient pressure it can be rotated around the seat post on it's mounting. Obi turned around and tried to run behind me on the bicycle to investigate this other dog. The stretch cord off the end of the Walky folded up my rear fender and squished it between the frame and the rear tire. The force of Obi jerking me backwards and to the right pulled me right over onto the pavement and curb. Obi knew he was in the wrong right away, his tail between his legs and head bowed as he looked at me trying to disentangle myself from my bike. Thankfully we were only half a block from the house as I had to carry my bike back, the fender was wedged in so hard the rear wheel would not turn. As soon as we got into the house Obi put himself to bed, neither I or Taj had to tell him to go there. I just hope he remembers the incident the next time I attempt to take him out on the Walky, it would be a shame to have to keep replacing rear fenders.

Broken Spokes

I have broken a spoke on my rear tire twice now. The first time was a few weeks back, I was pulling a burley trailer for the first time and when I went to get off the bike I tripped. I ended up pushing the bike down sideways and I heard the spoke pop but I didn't realize what it was at first. Needless to say I had it fixed and thought nothing more of it.

Yesterday, while testing out the route to Renovo again, I had another spoke pop on me. This time I was just riding along and heard it pop. I had been on a rough road earlier in the ride (one that I will be removing from the route to Renovo) but at the time it broke I was headed north on 12th from Division. The street was smooth and I had not leaned over sharply or anything. I walked the rest of the way to Renovo's shop because I was determined to make it there finally. Taj came and picked me up with the car from there. I was planning on turning around and riding home but figured that would be a bad idea on a wheel that was already weakened and no longer perfectly round.

I am wondering if I might have weakened the spoke in the earlier incident or maybe I am still a bit heavier than the bike is rated (I have lost 30 pounds so far though). The rear wheel is in the shop again of course, this spoke is about 1/4 of the wheel away from the first one that broke. Taj and I briefly discussed buying a second rear wheel to have on hand for this sort of situations. Either that or I need to get a truing stand and learn how to fix this sort of thing myself, I am sure I would end up saving money in the long run.

Keep On Keepin On

At this point the weight loss has tapered off somewhat. I don't seem to have lost any weight over the past week at all. I do have 82 miles on the bike so far this month though. I am going to be attempting a long ride this Sunday as preparation for a planned 28 mile ride on the 13th of June.

I have lost some of my initial excitement about cycling. Mostly for my morning ride into work really. I enjoy all of my other rides, hmmmm......perhaps I am just dreading going to work and not the actual ride. I have developed a healthy interest in cycling in general it seems. I have been recording and watching the Giro d'Italia on Universal Sports all this past week. When I was a teenager I met a guy who tried to talk me into cycling the Hood to Coast with him. I was too chicken to go for that though. I think my real interest in cycling lies in touring these days. Long trips on a bicycle loaded with gear. Cycling along US 101 on the Oregon coast sounds like a great deal of fun to me.

I am also interested in working on bikes, mechanically. I have always liked taking things apart and putting them back together. In my pre-teen years I used to spend the night at my cousin Gary's house and we would usually end up putting a bicycle together for me to ride from the bike junk pile he always seemed to have. Ususally the bike would only last the weekend, but it was a lot of fun. Learning the ins and outs of bicycle mechanics is a very strong itch I am doing my best to scratch now. Thankfully my wife is embracing and encouraging this life style change I seem to be undergoing. I am going to be doing some wrenching on her bike to try and make it a better fit for her. It's a bit small (13 inch frame size) and some of the cables need to be replaced but I think I can at least make it a bit more comfortable for her by getting a taller stem and handlebars for it. Of course that means replacing all the cables as well. I think we will hang on to the everything I pull off the bike though, just in case we manage to sell it to someone that is a bit shorter than my wife.

Last weeks trials and tribulations

I had a hard week last week on the bike. Mainly due to break downs. I posted previously about bending my rear wheel. The day I got the wheel back I rode home from work on the bike. The next day the rear tire was flat. I patched the tube that evening and it seemed to hold air just fine. I went for a ride from Gresham into Portland on Saturday (on the patched tube) and it held air the whole way. My wife picked me up at 22nd and Powell after the ride and we went to the west side for lunch. After lunch we returned to the car and I found the rear tire flat again. It was fine when I loaded it on the bike rack.

When we got home I pulled the tube out and filled it with air. Placing it under water in the kitchen sink I couldn't find any air leaks. I went ahead and put in a new tube anyway but I am suspicious that someone may have flattened the tire while it was attached to the rack. I rode on the new tube on Sunday, just a couple of miles but enough to limber up my legs and keep me from just sitting around Sunday. The tire seems fine today, hopefully I won't get a flat on my way to the MAX train this evening, or from MAX to Guardian games.

Even with all the troubles I managed to log 28.2 miles last week. I will probably end up with another 6 miles tonight.

First real snag

After cycling home from work last night I installed Burley hitches on both mine and my wife's bicycles. We have a used Burley Tail Wagon trailer, Taj picked it up on the side of the road, some of the canvas was torn and a snap is broken, but it is a functional trailer. I have another long term goal, to be able to go camping and touring by bicycle. The trailer tows smoothly behind both of our bikes, the snag came when I went to get off my bike after tooling around on the street for a minute. I had already put in six miles so I was a little tired and I tripped getting off my bike. I must have put a little too much pressure on the rear wheel as I stumbled and bent it. I didn't notice until this morning when I went to ride in to work. After riding a couple of blocks, noticing something was rubbing as I went, I pulled over and inspected the rear tire. It had a definate wobble and was dragging against the brakes as it went around. I rode back home and Taj gave me a ride to work before taking the bike into the shop for repairs. I am hoping that it doesn't take too long, I need to get some more miles in this week!


Update:
Taj took my bike in to Gresham Bicycles and they will have it back to me by tomorrow afternoon looks like. I also had a broken spoke.

Last weeks endeavors

I realize that I haven't posted in a full week, but this blog is young and not much exciting happened last weeks. After work on the 4th I headed to the MAX station instead of home as I had a game downtown to go to. It's an extra mile added to my usual ride home and of course it was pouring down rain the entire way. Thankfully I had the poncho on. Another mile from MAX to Guardian Games for a total of five miles in the afternoon. After the game a friend of mine has been giving me a ride home usually in his mini van. I decided to go ahead and ride the mile back uphill to MAX instead last Monday. The rain had stopped but I put the poncho back on just in case. I should have left it in the bag.

Climbing the hill on Grand it crosses over I-84, as I rode over the highway a gust of wind flipped the poncho up and over my head. I was blind, moving slow, in the dark, on a normally busy road. Thankfully the road was pretty empty at the time and I managed to stop without crashing. I took off the poncho and stuffed it in the bag. I pushed on to the MAX station and called my wife, who picked me up at the Gresham end and drove me the rest of the way home. I ended Monday with six miles ridden for the day.

Tuesday I rode in to work, I was exhausted. I had been making it to work tired, but without having to stop on any of the hills along the way. I had to stop once, and finish a hill by pushing the bike. I had no energy in my legs. I spent the rest of Tuesday on shakey legs, downing as much water as I could. I decided to take it easy the rest of the week, still cycling, just at an easy pace and stopping as much as I felt necessary. I stopped once on my way home Wednesday, even though I didn't really feel I had to. Thursday I made it in to work with one stop but I at least didn't have to push up any hills. I was on call for work the rest of the week so no cycling Friday or Saturday. Sunday morning I got up and weighed myself, another 10 pounds lost. That's 25 pounds off so far! I took a longer route home from work in the afternoon after dropping my truck off once I was finally off duty. It only adds a little over half a mile to the ride but every little bit helps.

I made it into work today with no stops.

Near Death Experience

Those of you reading this that have known me for a long time will also know I am into role playing games. Not the computer ones (though I like those too), I am talking about good old fashioned, pencil, paper, and dice role playing games. Every first Saturday of the month my friends and I get together to play GURPS. Since my schedule has been allowing us to play at my friends house in Beaverton, and he has incredibly bad luck coming to my house (flat tires, speeding tickets, small fender benders, etc.) I rode to MAX and then bicycled to his house from there. I had never biked to Gilbert's house before, always taking the Jeep when I had it. Needless to say I was not fully aware of how hilly the route was.

I got off of MAX at the 141st & Milliken stop, from there it's about four miles south on Murray to my friends road. The route is hilly, from Milliken Way headed south it is mostly uphill with a few flat or downhill slopes, but they aren't super steep so I was managing alright. Then I saw the hill past SW Sexton Mountain Dr. Apparently, after looking at a map today, it's an actual mountain. Sexton Mountain to be precise. It's steep, very steep. I thought about waiting at the bus stop at the bottom steep. I had made everything else OK though so I pushed on and started up the hill. One third of the way up my heart was hammering in my chest so I stopped and caught my breath. I had switched into the lowest possible gear on my bike a while back since I just couldn't push on in anything higher. At least in that gear I was able to start up again on that incline. I caught my breath and pushed on, making it another third of the way up the hill I stopped once more. Perversely this is the point in which the angle of the incline becomes even steeper. Needless to say, I pushed my bike the rest of the way to the crest on foot. Looking back from the crest all the cars at the bottom of the hill looked like toys. I stood there and caught my breath once more.

After catching my breath I hopped on the bike and cruised downhill, a much more pleasant ride than the uphill for certain. Due to a motorist trying to turn in front of me (he had plenty of room but saw me and stopped instead) I was paying more attention to him than the road he was turning onto. Of course that was the road I was supposed to turn down but I zipped past it. I realized my mistake when I made it to Scholls Ferry Road and had to turn around, climbing uphill again to my friends house. By the time I got to his house my shirt was soaked through. It had been drizzling all day but I had been wearing a poncho to keep dry. It was sweat soaking my shirt not rainwater. The added detour to my route made the trip five miles instead of four.

The game went pretty good, it usually does. The majority of our group has been gaming on this schedule for around two years now. We did our usual joking around and general mirth making. Towards the end of our gaming session it started to rain hard. The rest of the guys looked at me and asked if I wanted a ride to the MAX station after the game. I said yes, thinking of that huge hill as much as how the rain was coming down outside. Just for emphasis a little thunder and lightning got thrown in the mix. Yeah I would definitely take a ride to the train. Of course by the end of the game it had cleared up. And my bike was too big to fit in anyones car as well. We tried stuffing it into Jeff's car, taking off both wheels even. No go. I told everyone I would just ride to the closest bus stop on Murray and take the bus to the train. I put the wheels back on the bike, grabbed my pannier and helmet out of Jeff's car and they took off.

I hopped on the bike and headed down the hill from Gilbert's to make my way through his neighborhood to Murray so I could catch the bus.

I forgot to reassemble the brakes. I found this out when I tried to keep myself from going too fast down the very steep hill that Gilbert lives on. I tapped the brakes at the top of the hill because I knew I didn't want to be going full speed at the bottom and try and make the 90 degree left turn.

I am fairly certain Gilbert's neighbors heard my shout of "Oh Sh*t!!" as I rocketed down the hill. Luckily about halfway down the hill was a side street that went back uphill. I managed to zip around that corner without wiping out and came to a stop. Thank god for gravity. I got off the bike and assembled the brakes. Then I stood there for a bit shaking.

After composing myself I hopped back on the bike and headed for the bus stop. I did ride partway up Sexton Mountain again, as far as my spent legs could take me anyhow. I ended up waiting forty minutes for a bus that is supposed to come by every twenty. When the bus finally arrived I found out that my bike is too large to fit the bike rack on the front of the bus. I could have walked to the top in the time that I had been standing there waiting. Of course now I had no choice but to walk to the top. No way would my tired legs get me up that steep slope on the bike.

To make a long story short, I managed. I made it to the top of the hill and then called my wife to explain what was taking me so long to get home. She asked if I just wanted to stay where I was and she would come and get me. I asked her to come pick me up at the MAX station. I was tired, wet, and cold, but I wanted to finish out the ride to the MAX at the very least. Besides it would take her long enough to get to Beaverton from Gresham that I could be there by the time she was at least. I made it those four miles and rested on a bench at the station until Taj picked me up. With the mile from our house to MAX that morning I had managed to go a total of ten miles on Saturday.

I took Sunday off from cycling to recuperate.


I have lost fifteen pounds and three inches off my waist since starting this blog.

There and back again.

So yesterday I made it all the way home from work without having to take a breather. The first of my short term goals accomplished! Today, due to the strange schedule I have, I rode both to work from home, and then back home from work at the end of the day. Six miles instead of my usual three. After having pushed myself yesterday and succeeding I felt determined to make it in to work without a rest stop as well. The ride to work is a bit harder for me as the hills are longer climbs than the ride home. It is the same route but that's the way the terrain works. The hills home are short and steep but with long gradual downhills to build up speed for them. I managed to make it in to work without having to stop but just barely, my legs felt like rubber when I finished. I decided that in the afternoon I would just take a leisurely ride home and stop any time I felt the need. On the ride home, for whatever reason, I hit every light perfectly, every hill was easier than the day before, I just hit this stride on the way home that made the ride seem easy. I didn't finish it as quickly as I did yesterday, but it just seemed so much easier. I decided to jump on the scales after I had cooled down and walked around the house a little, I have lost 10 pounds already.

Now I know that I am going to have times when I don't lose weight for awhile, or I have conflicts and am unable to ride as much as I need, but damn it sure feels good to see results already.

Back on the bike after two days

I have been chomping at the bit to get back to riding the last couple of days. My bike was in at Rivercity bicycles for the last couple of days getting it's 30 day maintenance (when you buy a new bike from Rivercity you get to take it back 30 days later and they do a tune up to check for cable stretch and re lube everything). I think they threw brand new brake pads on when they did it, they sure look like new ones.

So I rode home from work today after taking my truck back to the lot. Beautiful day for a ride too, lots of sun but not too hot out. I decided to try and push myself today since I didn't have most of the extra stuff I pack with me on the bike (laptop, small backpack with clothes, etc). I hit the road and kept what I felt to be a good pace. I finally managed to make it the entire three miles without taking a rest stop along the way. Three hill climbs along the route as well. The entire trip only took me 10 minutes today, that's an 18mph average for the trip. I was pretty winded by the time I got home but rather proud of myself for making it the whole way without a stop. Making that trip without stops was the first of my short term goals.

Tomorrow I am doubling my ride, I have to ride both to work and back home. That'll be 6 miles for me, the farthest I have ridden in a long time. Of course I do get to split that in half with 8 hours in between each ride but it is 6 miles in a day. Plus I will have all that extra junk I usually carry so I will take it a little easier than the pace I set today.

I joined a social bicycling group a couple of weeks ago. The most active members I have communicated with so far are in much better shape than me but very supportive of my efforts and goals. I look forward to the day when I can join in on some of the more difficult rides that they do. I definately feel like I am seeing progress with my rides. Even after that fast pace I kept getting home I felt fine after just a 10 minute rest. I definately need to start lengthening my rides already.

I want to thank all my family and friends who have been so supportive of me over the last few weeks, it has really helped me keep in the saddle on those cold days that we are still getting.

Riding in the rain

I huddled in bed as long as I could this morning, it was cold and wet outside. My knees ached from riding all week. Finally a little before 7am I drug myself out and got ready. Taj had left for work so I could not beg her to take me in instead of my having to ride in the cold (did I do that on purpose subconsciously?). I hurried and got my laptop packed into the pannier after complaining on facebook about how cold and wet it was. I pushed the bike out of the garage and made sure the house was locked up.

Then it started to rain. It wasn't a heavy rain, but seriously??

Well nothing else to do but get going. I probably could have called in to work and had someone pick me up on the way in but I honestly didn't think of that at the time. My old route down 257th is going to have construction happening until sometime next year as they widen it so I have started riding through the neighborhood instead. It doesn't add much to the ride as far as mileage goes but it is pretty quiet.

There are a lot more traffic lights on Orient Dr than there used to be when I was a kid. Of course when I was a kid there were no traffic lights on Orient so I guess it doesn't take too much. When I first started riding I had to stop several times along the way to work. Once around 11th and Kane, again at the top of the hill Orient and 24th (to be truthful I had to push the bike up the hill from Barnes to 24th the first few times), and once more right after the hill at Welch and Orient. That was as long as none of the lights along the way went red on me. I made it to work today with only one stop, right after the final hill at Welch and Orient. I think my right knee was complaining to me about the lack of a break but my left knee was drowning him out if that was the case. My hands were numb, partially from the cold (42 degrees this morning) and partially because I was gripping the handlebars so hard to get up that last hill. Of course as I round the final corner and begin that final flat straight stretch to work the sun comes out and the rain stops.

I could have used that on the last hill thank you very much.

Goals

I know some of my goals should be rather obvious, get in better shape, lose weight, etc. I have some other goals though that may not be readily apparent. My short term goals are pretty simple I admit and meant to be accomplished in order.

1. Make it to work without having to stop for a breather. (3 miles)
2. Make it to Sandy from Gresham. (7 miles)
3. Make it to Sandy from Gresham and then turn around and ride back. (14 miles)

You know I haven't really set a goal past that third one yet in my short term goals list.

And a few long term goals.

1. Complete the shortest length of the Reach the Beach bicycle ride in May 2010 (26 miles, the first 15 are mostly uphill, the last 11 downhill or flat)
2. Lose 200 pounds (or whatever my BMI indicates I should lose)
3. If I can accomplish #2, buy myself a Renovo bicycle as a reward.



Have you ever seen a bike that pretty? They are made from wood, you can select which hardwoods you want as the main body and accent pieces for a completely unique frame. I can't stop looking at the pics of these. Seriously, I think I am drooling here.

Big Gear for Big People

There may be some out there who think, "They just don't make cycling gear for someone my size." Not true. The bicycle I am now riding is made by a company called Specialized, they make road bikes, mountain bikes, etc. The model I purchased is the Crossroads Elite XL (the XL is for the size of the bike). It's a big bike, if you look at the picture of me riding it on the last post you might not be able to see how big it is but when Taj stands next to it the handlebars are chest level to her. This is a model that is discontinued by the looks of Specialized's website, the last year they list it is 2007 and not in the color that mine is at that. I don't know all the tech specs on the bike but I do know that as soon as I got on it was comfortable. The pinched nerve in my back didn't even hurt a bit. For anyone my size looking to get onto a bicycle comfort is important. I had a bike I had purchased for $10 at a junkyard last year that was uncomfortable to ride, I didn't ride it much. The front forks of the Crossroads has shock absorbers and the seat post does as well. Combine that with the seat being spring loaded and it is as smooth a ride as I have ever had on a bicycle.

I bought it at River City Bicycles in Portland. My wife and I went straight to River City instead of any other shop mainly because she had recently gone bike shopping with a friend of hers from work. Her friend Sarah went through the complete bike fitting that they offer in which they measure you in all sorts of ways to make sure you get a bike just right for you. It is necessary to book an appointment for that kind of fitting, which we did. Turns out that I didn't need that in the long run though. You need the pro fitting if your going to get a competitive road bike fitted to you, not if your just buying a bike to ride around town on. For that all you have to do is show up and want to buy a bike. The sales people do take the time to make sure your getting a bike that is comfortable for you though. I tried out one other bike before they brought me the Crossroads, I couldn't even get up and pedaling on that other one though. Any bike shop should help their customers out with this sort of thing though, any that want your business that is. River City has one of the largest bike showrooms I have ever seen and a friendly staff, so I do recommend checking them out if your looking for a bike.

Other items I picked up at River City were fenders for the bike, a rear rack, a pannier that is a perfect fit for my laptop, and a helmet. Once again a large selection of all of these items is helpful, I have a large cranium so I needed a larger helmet than I had been using. The pannier has a pull over rain slicker to keep my electronics from getting wet when I ride in the rain and the fenders help to reduce the amount of water I throw on myself as I am riding along. The bike itself was less than $500, after all the add ons it creeped up to the $800 mark but the additions have been well worth it so far.

A few days after buying the bike I decided that I also needed front and rear lights since I would be riding on the road. Luckily for me Bike Gallery's annual spring sale was starting that week. Taj, Corey, Obi (our dog), and I loaded into the car and headed down to the closest location to check out lights. I went with an LED front light, it isn't the brightest light and I wouldn't want to try and ride at night with it as my only illumination. The main point of getting it though was to use as a front flashing light to get peoples attention. I ended up spending another $50 on lighting for the front and rear. On the way home we decided to make a quick stop and left Obi in the back seat with the bag containing my new lights. Now it isn't all Obi's fault, normally when he gets to go for a ride taj buys him a small chew toy if he is a good boy during the ride. Needless to say by the time we got back to the car Obi had done his best to devour the $50 worth of lights that we had just picked up. Amazingly we were able to put the lights back together and they still work. My front light has the worst teeth marks on it and the water resistant rubber button is gone but it works. The rear light was in three pieces but it was able to be put back together and only has a couple of small marks on it from the ordeal.

Most of my posts in the future will likely be about my experiences riding. Occasionally I might talk about some whiz bang gadget that I like along the way. But mostly this is a way to keep myself motivated and on the bike.

The beginning

I imagine at some point that people might actually wander across my ramblings here. They might be people I know already or complete strangers. Let me start this blog off with a bit of background info.

My name is Jim, I started bicycling again three weeks ago. I sold my car and bought a bike to get back and forth to work on. I have always been overweight, even as a child. I was the chubby kid in school. I used to ride bicycles, before I got my license to drive. I could ride 14-15 miles without too much trouble but I never rode hard enough or often enough to lose any weight really. After my first year of college I got my first job and lost 100 pounds over that summer. I was working in a restaurant with no AC in the kitchen, average temp was 100 degrees. The following year in college was amazingly different. I walked around campus and girls actually looked at me, to be fair they looked at me before but not the way they were looking at me after losing the weight. I took up martial arts and got in even better shape. I started dating for the first time in my life at age 19, I probably could have dated at a younger age but I was shy and had no confidence in myself. I was 19, finally looking good (to myself at least) and suddenly I felt like I could take on the world. I dated....a lot. At one point I think I was dating at least 6 girls at the same time. I was honest about it to all of them, I told them all that I was not looking for anything serious and that I was seeing other girls besides them. Heck three of them were from work so they all knew each other and that the others were going on dates with me as well.

I didn't stay that way for long though, I got serious with one girl and my crazy days were over. I was still doing martial arts though. Then I tore up my left knee. It seems somewhat glamorous to say that I did it in full contact sparring but the reality is I went up for a kick and my knee folded, no one hit me, I just crumpled to the ground. Weak knees run in my family, but then so does obesity. Several of my uncles have had knee and back problems over the years, we are all overweight as well. The specialist that put my knee back together told me to give up martial arts and take up bicycling as that would be less jarring for my joints. I ignored him at the time, I was young, somewhat fit, and somewhat in denial that I needed to keep exercising to maintain that level of fitness.

I got married shortly after I healed up enough to walk without crutches. I also started putting the pounds back on. I could blame marriage but that would be lying to myself. I was lazy and quit exercising. The marriage didn't last, I got depressed about it and put on more weight. I had a son now and sat around most of the day playing video games or going to work. I had dropped out of college to get married of course. Over the years I had a few girlfriends, some serious some not. I kept slowly gaining more weight as the years went by. A few years back I met my wife and remarried.

I met Taj online, through a dating service called Romantic Planet. To say she is fantastic isn't good enough. She has given me back my confidence. She inspires me to be better than I am right now. I want to be better because I want to spend as much time as I can with her, but I still kept gaining weight. Apparently just being happy isn't enough to get healthy.

So here I am, nearly 42 years old (my birthday is coming up in September) and incredibly overweight. My knee creaks when I walk and pops frequently. My back hurts almost all the time. I got on a scale for the first time in a long time this morning. I have been afraid to look at my own weight for years now. I weigh 420 pounds as of this morning. I can't stand up for more than 10 minutes without being in excruciating pain.

I have been bicycling 3-4 miles per day to get back and forth to work for the past two weeks. I need to lose an entire person.