My Most Recent Ride 2008 (Part I of series)

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Hi Tom,

In regards of pick up trucks and covers, unless your bike handlebars and seat are fairly narrow, stay away from the tonneaus. I have one on my Nissan Frontier, I have to loosen my handlebars, put the bike in, then rotate the front forks and move the handlebars to make room. Frankly, as far as I’m concerned, this is the last hard tonneau I will have. It’s a pain when you want to carry something larger than what will fit underneath it and it’s hard to get out of the way.
For carrying bikes, I think I’d prefer a camper or camper shell. That way you can just set them inside the bed and close and lock the door/window.

Curtis

 

Silver Comet

We just got back to the hotel after about four hours on the trail.

SallyTN, Karen, and I set out this morning from the Hiram trailhead a little after 9:00 am. This morning as I was getting ready, I realized I had not brought my cleated shoes. So I rode the first ten miles using athletic shoes to pedal on Speedplay Frogs.

First we rode east toward Atlanta. The Hiram trailhead is at mile 14.6 of the trail. We had already talked about going by the Silver Comet Depot to swap some Schrader valve tubes we had bought there for Prestas (Karen's trike prefers Presta valves). It's a top notch bike store at mile marker 4.5 on the trail. After I realized I had forgotten my shoes, I had even more incentive to go by the store -- to get some emergency pedals.

It was overcast and a little cool when we started. Based on the forecast, we expected the clouds to burn off and the SUN to come out. As it turned out, the overcast stayed with us and it stayed a little cool. It would have been nice if it had gotten just a little warmer, but we didn't have a problem with overheating.

There were lots of other folks on the trail -- bikers, joggers, and walkers. We were surprised at how many recumbents we saw. There were even a couple of other trikes besides Karen's. The closer we got to the Atlanta end, the busier the trail became.

At the bike store, I got my pedals and swapped the tubes, Karen visited the convenience store across the street for extra provisions, and we all had a snack and a rest. When we were ready, we got back on the trail heading west this time.

Gradually the crowds thinned out and the trail surroundings became less urban. We passed a condominium development advertising townhomes on the trail in the 140K range. Wouldn't a house on the trail be sweet?

On the way back, Sally got a little ahead of Karen and me so that we lost track of her. She had mentioned that she was probably going to stop at the next restroom that came up, so when we passed one, I looked for her bike, but didn't see it. We rode on, expecting to catch up to her, but got all the way back to the Hiram trailhead without seeing her.

After we had been sitting there a few minutes having another snack, up rides Sally! She had stopped at the rest stop where I looked for her. She saw us go by and waved but somehow I missed seeing her. Anyway, we got hooked back up again. After another rest and snack, we pedaled on down the trail to the west. We passed the Jennifer Ewing memorial (the lady who was attacked and killed on the trail several years ago) and the Tara Drummond trailhead (a police officer who was accidentally shot and killed during firearms training).

We turned around at the Rambo Road trailhead and started back to where we had left our vehicles. After a while, Sally rode off ahead of us again. I figured she was just tired and ready to be done, but all of a sudden as we're riding along, she's parked alongside the trail with her camera out and she shoots a picture of Karen and me as we go by. So I decided to try the same thing. I rode out ahead and got set up and got a pretty good picture of Karen as she went by. Then I thought I could make things better and messed up the camera settings on my cell phone and got a blurry picture of Sally as she passed (see below).

When we got back to the Hiram trailhead, my computer was registering 36.03 miles with an average speed of 9.0. Since Karen and I typically do 7 to 8 mph, that was pretty good for us. Our total ride time (not counting stops) was right around 4 hours. This is the longest ride Karen and I have made in a day. It never would have been possible before we were both recumbent. Now we're tired, but nothing hurts. Such a nice feeling.

We're keeping our fingers crossed for more sunshine and better pictures tomorrow. Tomorrow we plan to ride about 30 miles from the Rambo Road trailhead -- the furthest west we got today.

 

Re: Silver Comet

Hello everyone
Did the second leg of the Silver Comet today with Tom and Karen.
Rambo rd. to rockmart and back. It was a lovely day with lots of sunshine and after the first hour warm weather. It was getting hot by the time we got back to the car. This leg was very rural and quite pretty with several tunnels to go through. I took several pictures but my camera was on the fritz so I did not get any spectacular pictures and a few ones I thought I had were not on the camera. The trip consisted of Karen, Tom and I and I think we all had a very good time. Tom already described the first day. It was a bit chilly on saturday but sunday we could not of asked for better weather.

I really enjoyed the whole trip and would love to go back and do the rest.
We saw quite a few recumbents and I stopped and talked to a few people who wanted to know how hard the recumbents were to ride.

The trail is increadibly well maintained and is really nice.

 

Re: Silver Comet

I've only done a portion of the SC, I need to finish it.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Sally described the second day pretty well -- not much to add. I've included some of the pictures I got below. I was using my cellphone and some of them came out blurry.

The first picture is Sally and Karen at the Rambo Road trailhead, ready to start.

Can you see the holes in the hard hats? Someone has turned them into birdhouses.

The last picture is a sign outside Rockmart that says, "REMOTE AREA! Do you have... water? cell phone? sunscreen? buddy?"

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

The three muskateers had a great ride today. Weather was perfect. We rode 26+ miles on Knoxville Greenways.

The group consisted of Buddy, Tom and me.

Attached are some pictures. The last three pictures show Buddy's and my bikes are tired (notice them leaning on a rock) while Tom's bike is ready to roll. That held True for the ride too.

Tom is a great rider. I don't think he broke a sweat the whole trip. Good to get to know a new recumbent rider!!!

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

That's a nice bike Tom. Whoever put that thing together knew what he was doing.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Yes, I would agree, Bill. I've been enjoying the bike very much. I think it'll be even nicer once I get that new seat on it that I talked to Doc about today.

The ride was a lot of fun. It was great to meet Jon and Buddy and to get to ride with them. Jon is funny. You never know if he's is going to insult you or flatter you. (And I think I sweated about as much as Jon and Buddy did. Well, Buddy was wearing longhandles to keep the sun off his legs, so I imagine he got pretty warm. Jon called the high tech light weight ankle-length technical pants I was wearing "girly pants"! )

I could tell from their easy-going banter that Jon and Buddy are old friends. I felt privileged to be included over the course of the ride.

Here are the best of the pictures I got...

The first one is Jon, the second is Buddy near the beginning of the ride, when we stopped in front of the Tennessee Amphitheater, near the Sun Sphere.

The third is at the top of the first bridge we crossed over the river, looking back toward Knoxville.

The fourth is Buddy coming up the slope to the top of the bridge.

The fifth picture is the old pink marble quarry near Ijams. It was interesting and pretty.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Nice bikes and it looks like it was a glorious ride.

It's dawning nice and pretty out and thanks to some slightly more serious pain meds (courtesy of my FIL), I might feel well enough to cycle today. I have a feeling if I don't go, Loke will drag me out and he's starting to look strong enough to accomplish it. He's building muscle fast. Give it another month or so he'll be the 'Arnold' of the husky world.

Now if the fur brain would just build some _stamina_. I must admit though, I have a sneaking suspicion that Loke's dragging on the runs is due to boredom. : So, I might just have my hubby drive me, trike and husky out about 25 miles along a nice country road for Loke and I to get back home under our own power and see if my theory is correct.

Terii

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Hey folks, looks like most have been having some fun out there. Even Terii is riding albeit with some discomfort.

I just wanted everyone to know (especially Buddy) that Michigan saw 70 degrees yesterday for the first time since late September 2008. And we are forecast another one today before it is back to reality again.

Even with 70 degrees, we still have 2 snowbanks left over! I'm wondering how long they will last. They might even get some added to it this coming week as the cold moves back in.

But I've been out riding even though I've been a bit under the weather as of late. Thursday I got some pretty cold feet because I took the fairing off. Yesterday was fantastic. Hopefully today will be the same. It appears it won't be quite as sunny today though as the system is moving in already. I'll be out there in about an hour.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

PS. I forgot one important detail. If you look at the first picture I want to report Buddy wore his underwear on the OUTSIDE of his pants this ride. I didn't!!!! (See first picture.)

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Hi all!

Just back from my first ride in a while. Even longer that it was painfree!! No throbbing head in time with my heartrate because of the tooth pain. The weather has warmed up a bit and it was pretty which helped fling me out the door.

I decided to test the theory that Loke's sluggish-ness was because of boredom. It looks like I, vet and breeder were right. I pulled him along for about 4.5 miles and then took a left turn where I generally go right or straight. The next thing I knew, he went from sulking along at about 6 mph to loping along at almost 11 mph.

It only lasted about another 5 miles or so though, but can't really blame him. He's a husky and it was kinda warm today and he's not even really started shedding his coat. I did try to help that along too though. I took his special brush and when he seemed to be panting a bit heavily, I'd stop to give him some water and spend a few minutes going over him with the grooming tool. I can see the news now.

"Motorists along the Old Börje Road reported unexplained white-out conditions... More to follow at 11."

But Loke is like the never ending Kleenex box of fur. No matter how much you brush, it just keeps coming. At least we made all the nesting birds for a several mile radius happy.

But our total ride today was about 18 miles. Less than the 20 miles I planned on, but I decided to take pity on Loke because he seemed so warm. He's currently flat on his side under the ceiling fan with a damp towel draped over him. I probably could have gone for longer, but I'm so HUNGRY. I'm cooking up a nice big pot of dirty rice, heavy on the meat.

Terii

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Got out today myself. Temperature was 72 degrees. (How do you like that Terii!!)

Beautiful clear skies. Slight wind. Rode one of my greenway rides. Only rode for 1 hour but got 14 miles in. I was too busy today to ride farther. It tough having to work to pay bills when I would rather just ride.....

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

My last ride was a few laps around Cal State Fullerton on the bike paths they have. I decided to ride in that area because the temps where I work were in excess of 100 degrees. What I found out was that the temperature in Fullerton was running very close to 100. I only rode for 8.3 miles, about a third of what I try to do on Tuesday evenings, because it was so warm I was not pushing myself. On the plus side, in spite of it being quite warm, the humidity was very low so the only part of me that had any sweat stay long enough to show up was my back.

This weekend I’m hoping to get somewhere between 50 to 100 miles in. Friday evening I’ll try to get 25 or 30 miles in and Saturday I want to do a 70 mile loop. Since the temperatures have dropped back into the 60s and 70s as long as it doesn’t rain I’ll be good to go!

BTW Terii, I can feel for Loke with it being warm. I enjoy riding fast (around 14 or 15 mph), but was quite content at around 100 degrees to loaf at less than 9 mph.


Curtis

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Glad to see so many of us are getting out.

It was really hard for me to not cycle yesterday. It was so pretty, but I kinda wanted to take it easy and rest up to try and go today. Last night's temps were really mild, so I knew there was a good chance I could get out the door nice and early today. Early is good since it's lower sun to keep from cooking Loke in his fur.

Yep. I woke up at 5 am and it was 40 F instead of 30 to 35 F. The sun was already peeking over the horizon enough that the tops of the 3 story apartment buildings all around had their roofs tinged with the orange glow of the sun and I got moving. Fed the dog, fed me, walked the dog, changed into cycle clothes and wrestled everything out the door.

I love cycling so early on a weekend morning. The pure silence. Nothing to hear but the birds.. and well, the street sweeper as the great Swedish sweep up begins. Once the snows are gone, they collect almost ever bit of the gravel they laid down over the snow and ice. They'll even vacuum it out of the grassy medians

But no crowds of people with leashed dogs strung over the paths or lunging and snapping at Loke. No voices, no revving engines of cars. Just birds. I love early Swedish mornings between now and September or so. Go cycle at 5 am (or even earlier) and it's sunny and the rest of the country is sound asleep.

Loke kept a pretty good pace today. I took him on a route we've only done twice before and I explored down another road along it while I was at it. It was sunny and mild. After about an hour, it had warmed up enough that I could pull off the extra layer. Also stopped a couple times and left a couple husky sized piles of fur scattered over the country side.

There are a lot of horses along this particular route and Loke just loves that. Especially when they're curious and they run along the fence with us. I found a few things I would love to get pictures of, but that will have to wait for another day since the 'big' digital camera is on loan to my sister-in-law and my little point-n-click digital is in Detroit with my husband.

I had actually planned to go ride a bit more after I got back with a tired husky, but the last hour or so of the ride and the wind kicked up. That worked to wear me out enough that I felt okay about not trying to put in another 15 or 30 miles.

A very good morning, though now I'm going to feel twitchy about the fact that there's still so much gorgeous day left and I'm not out cycling.