My Most Recent Ride 2013 (Part VI in a series)

TWO rides today.

Jens caught an early train and won't be back until almost midnight so Loke's bathroom requirements fell to me. I would have headed out before 10 am, but I started getting a headache. The puffy clouds taking up most of the sky had disappeared and it warmed quick. Between being completely bored with the area and feel too hot from the SUN, it was a pokey amble with Loke. At times we were barely faster than 3 mph!

I still managed to drag him for 7 miles with lots of stops for water, wetting his ears and breaks in the shade.

While hot for Loke, it was just a bit on the warm side for me. I had plenty of strength and energy left when I got home. I rubbed Loke down with a cold, wet towel and spread it on the floor under the ceiling fan before bolting out the door for a few more miles.

I love having the furball with me, particularly on the longer rides. He keeps me from hammering the pedals and wrecking my knees. He makes me laugh and keeps me company.

Sometimes it's great to go solo though and this one one of those times. Slicing through turns, streaking down hills, spinning hard and fast on the flats for longer and faster than Loke can keep up. Fun!

A good day and now I'm all wobbly and ravenously hungry after 21.5 miles for the day.

 

Hi Ron,

Enjoyed meeting you and riding with you. The best part was at the end of the ride when we both passed Larry Varney going about 28 MPH. (Larry was cruising at between 20 and 25 MPH on his trike! Very impressive!!!)

Look forward to riding with you next year!!!

Attached is your picture. (Ron is waving to me. He was riding a Cruz Soft rider. First one I had seen in person. Wow, a fast bike with a fast rider on it!!!)

 

OK as promised, I have several pictures of our Friday SMRR (Smoky Mountain Recumbent Rally) ride. We stopped about every 5 miles to get back together as a group. The first stop we took our group picture (see first attached pictures.) What a handsome looking group!!!

At 11 miles (the Coulter Bridge for you local folks) we had a rest stop via Keila and her truck. Orange and banana halves, water and sports drinks. We stood around and talked for 15 minutes. While there, a group of 15 DF riders came back to their cars from a ride. I commented to them, "Look at those funny looking bicycles!!! They were shocked to see so many recumbents at one place. (I know it doesn't happen often. Usually I am by myself.) Felt good to outnumber them for a change!!!

Then we headed back. Stopped at another 7 miles for a photo op place, then proceeded back to the shop.

Again we stopped for about 15 minutes for a potty break, eat and talk at the shop. Tom of Trident Trikes was there with his arsenal of trikes in the parking lot. Lots of talking and gawking.

A smaller group went with me to Tremont. I scared them about the big climb, but everyone was pleasantly surprised at the very low climb. Most couldn't even tell they were climbing.

Again at Tremont we stopped and talked. Don and Terry were there so we got to talk to them. After 10 minutes we zoomed down the road (best part of the whole ride in my opinion) and back to the shop just in time to eat lunch.

After lunch, some folks left (and missed winning the drawing for a door prize). The rest of us listened to 4 speakers.

We heard about a 3 month trek across the US by Larry Varney. He sagged for Bubba's Pampered Peddlers coast 2 coast ride. In exchange for working, he also got to ride about 1/3 of the time and go for free. (Larry is always sniffing for a good deal.!)

We heard about the recent developments of Trident Trikes by Tom (the owner). All of Trident Trikes fold. A main reason is that the cost to add the hinge is more than offset by the reduced shipping costs from China. Very interesting. What I found particularly fascinating was he bought a two wheel folding recumbent. (His first because he only does trikes up until now.) He built it in China on his last trip as an experiment. He had it there for us to ride. I rode it and it rode very well. He said the price is $990 retail which got my attention. I have always lamented I couldn't take a recumbent with me when I flew to a vacation spot. I think I now have a solution for this.

Then Bill and the CEO of the new Edge corporation talked about developments with the new Edge recumbent bicycles and their Humming Bike electric bicycles. Lots of exciting stuff happening in that arena.

Once the speakers were through, everyone scrambled to ride the Trident trikes in the parking lot. (All the electric bikes were rented for the day.)

Finally I want to give the award for the weirdest recumbent to the Fievobike recumbent. This bike is made in Germany if I got my story straight. A guy from Maryville Tennessee bought it a couple of months ago and has the bruises to prove it. This truly was the recumbent designed to fulfill the phrase "Look Ma, no hands!!!"



(The owner is riding it and waving in the 8th picture. Notice it is USS and he is riding no hands!!!) This recumbent you steered with your feet and only used the handlebars to change gears. The owner passed me on one section of our ride and he had both hands on his legs pumping away. Also check out the unusual fender for the front wheel.

Despite the cloudy / rainy weather, we had a great group and a great time. Hope to see all of you next year!!!

 

Thanks for the photos, Jon! Looks nice enough for me to wish I'd been there!

Made my 175th post on my blog. Touched briefly on 3 rides with Loke and a longer rambling about my solo ride to the burial ground. Photos of course.

Terii

 

Those are some pretty nice picts... I hope some others got to get some as well.

 

Another ride today. I had the car and since I didn't feel like dragging a bored Loke around the River Loop at 3-4 mph, I took the car to a loop I rode during the winter. It starts from a church in a little town called Björklinge and then around Långsjön (Long Lake). The total distance is about the same as a River Loop with all the extensions, but soooooo much nicer.

Now, I have to call my husband to tell him that the deaf woman is screaming in rage and throwing things at her neighbor's windows.... again.

Terii

 

I drove 80 miles and rode 35 on the Macomb Orchard Trail. I rode it years ago when it was dirt and gravel. Now it's longer and paved, with signs, restrooms, benches on the bridges for fishing, etc. I saw a few bents and was passed by many of the spandex crowd.

 

Today's been a public holiday in the UK, so a long weekend where for once this year the weather was good, the wife was away and I managed to cycle everyday ! Better still different bike each day - 15 miles on the DF on Friday, a lovely 65 mile ride into the country on the ICE Sprint yesterday and then 38 miles on The Greenspeed tandem, up into London and around today. Back home to mow the lawn, wash and oil the ICE and change all the tyres as they were getting a bit worn. All I need now is dinner and a beer ! Then work for the rest of the week to rest.

 

Sounds like you had a really good time.

 

Rode 18.7 miles this past weekend with a friend of mine around Apex North Carolina. North Carolina has more hills than where I ride in Tennessee. After 18.7 miles it felt like 30. Luckily I bought my V Rex and dropped down to my granny chain ring on the big up hills. Life (and knee) Saver!!!

 

If you haven't seen it, Cheezy Rider put together about a 30 minute video of the Smoky Mountain Recumbent Rally earlier this month. Great music and it shows the type of riding we do here.

Count on joining us next year!!! Click here.

 

Got my Apple back. It's dying by inches, but I think I can get it to connect a few more times until I get it replaced. The logic card is giving out and since the computer is almost 4 years old, it isn't worth the cost to replace it. So, a new one it is.

Until then, as long as I can convince this one to connect I'll pop on.

I've ridden a few times since my last post. I've more than doubled the total mileage of May 2012 and I'm at 450 miles for the year. 11 rides for the month which is decent given that I only had 3 on the 15th.

Today's ride was right at 9 miles. Yesterday was just at 5.7 miles. Just dragging around the River Loop. Still, miles are miles!

Hope everyone else is able to get out and enjoy the spring/early summer!

Terii

 

Haha lucky you. I am still working on a system that I got back in 2002. I need a new one so bad I can't stand it, but the one I need cannot be just a run of the mill system you get from Wally world. So i am saving up my pennies.

 

2002?? And it still can run an updated web browser? I'm not being sarcastic. Only 4 years old and my Apple throws fits if I have my writing software, my time-line program and thesaurus web page up at the same time!

Terii

 

Oh don't worry about sarcasm... I have enough of that myself when trash talking about my own system. I can only run in three programs at a time due to the lack ram...the updates to he programs I do keeps thins running, but the system gets slower and slower.