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.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
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!
Monday, June 8, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, June 1, 2009
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.
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.
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