My Most Recent Ride 2011 (Part IV of the series)

That was me. I had 3 DFs and after my trike, I never got on them and sold them. A couple of years later I rented a "comfort" bike (what an oximoron) and rode 45 miles. My butt hurt, my hands, wrists and should hurt. Scenery was beautiful, but I don't see myself doing that any time soon.

 

Urgh! I finally blogged April 25th's ride. Rough couple of days.

http://terii.wordpress.com/

There's the link!

Terii

 

15-ish miles. A HARD 15 miles. I knew Öland would be windy, but it was insane and of course, I added to it by going north into it. No coasting for me and hard pushing the whole time. My face feels like it's been scoured with sandpaper.

It was beautiful though. Lots of stone walls criss-crossing the country side, quite a few Iron Age/Viking grave fields and windmills.

Tomorrow, I'm cycling from north to south. With my luck the wind will have shifted. If not, I'll be coasting and Loke will have to run his legs off to keep up. Hehe.

Terii

P.S. Sorry, no blogging until I get home. We left the external card reader at home so no way to get the photos from the camera's mem card.

 

A Saturday morning ride in Cades Cove, GSMNP

The first part covers the last half of the trip from my house to Cades Cove passing thru Wears Valley, an area West of Pigeon Forge, TN and about 15 miles from my house. That's where we'll pick up the trip.

There was an outside chance another rider or two would join us so I thought I'd slip by where he was 'engineering' some Mandolin pickin! Bill, hope my brief stop provided a fond topic of conversation afterwords.



This second part video will cover the early portion of this lazy ride I enjoyed with Paul, Alvin and David. The still pictures, including Alvin demonstrating "Yogi", for the most part were taken at the half/way visitor rest area which features several log cabin structures for touring. Some mountain music was being played on the porch of the cabin where we enjoyed our brown-bag lunch.

As you can readily see, our 'touring pace' would best be described as a 'sweep operation', trailing all others and picking up stragglers. Well, we met out goals. After the 11-mile loop, Paul & I regrouped in Pigeon Forge for over 20 additional miles of ridin', finishing with lights on. Enjoy



I want to offer an apology for the wind noise; when riding it is not something you actually hear. The feather down that used to be over the mic, and worked nicely, was worn off during a cycle tour several weeks back. Since then, I have ordered a camera that features an external speaker which will allow me to more easily dial in True sound. I really enjoy background music, but prefer narration...., so bear with me on this.

 

I don't film my rides but they are great. Rode to church and back home man did I ever need that. They say riding is the best therapy for anything.

 

After 27 hours of overtime in the last 2 days I needed a ride. 24.6 miles with the club. Grey overcast skies and rain the last 4 miles. Met a new member on a DF today and he said. "Man that thing can fly!"

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/235431

 

A 'best ride' is personal

The beauty of cycling is the personal 'flavoring' each person can tailor to suit their individual taste. Further, I don't think for a minute that a ride has to be filmed to be enjoyed, either by you or by us. Just knowing you're reporting your excitement of a ride is 'way cool'

I have enjoyed many rides that are not captured by anyone but me, and those are the most personally rewarding because they are judged only by ones self. No standards to meet, no speed or distance records to break, no out-of-focus worries.

Shawn, I think your ride 'post' was great! Thanks for sharing.

 

A beautiful day with no clouds in the sky and a forecast of 88 with mostly sunny skies. We left shortly after 7am, as we cruised into downtown we picked up a 4-some of DF riders. We rode along with them for a few minutes then passed them and carried on enjoying the lack of wind at this early hour.

Our plan was to ride a century so we took care not to push too hard early in the ride keeping our speed around 15.5 or so. With the temps in the 50's when we started the tendency would have been to push too hard. This, however, was mu friends first century so I was riding he trike to help keep him from starting too fast.

Not many cyclist out as there was a big organized ride that was starting around 9am. We did see a rare sight. Around mile 17 standing in the middle of the road right in the middle of the Fort there was a young Florida Cougar. He stared quizically at us as we approached and really let us get very close. I was glad when he decided he had seen enough and loped off toward the back of a building complex. A pretty tawny/sand color he had that long-legged adolescent look about him and he was a bit slow getting started, but once he was up to speed he was crazy fast.

The way the route was set up, it is a figure eight and it sort of set itself up into three sections. The first 30 or so miles were pretty flat with only one real climb to speak of and our speed along this section reflected that. The next 30 or so miles had a ton of climbing with one twelve mile section having close to 1000 feet of elevation gain. The last 30 or so miles were mostly flat with a few hard climbs right at the end. We did well and were still hanging around a 15 mph average when we finished the first 60 miles.

Sometime after mile 60 I bonked and I bonked hard. In retrospect it was easy to see that I hadn't increased my calories the few days before, I had done lots of yard work and probably hadn't hydrated well enough either. Mile 80 I was DONE and my world had shrunk to watching my feet making their little circles. The good news was my favorite Subway was only 4 miles ahead. A coke and some apple slices got me back on the road but my speed wasn't anything to write home about and I was facing some good climbs on the way in.

The last climb was brutal 8% long and hot with no shade, I think I carried about 4 mph but I didn't stop. Finally after almost 8 hours I was back at the Element with a moving time of 7:11 and a moving average of 14.1 and my first TRIKE century :trike:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/33165546

 

Ward,

Doing a Century on a TRIKE is INSANE!!! Don't apologize. I could never do that!!!

 

Thanks Jon, but I bet you could...just gotta build up to it. I will say this, a century on the trike was like a double metric or greater on the Dragon. There are a lot of reasons why a trike isn't as fast or as easy to pedal. More friction from the extra wheel, more weight, and less aerodynamic due to the extra width. So what does that mean when you are riding.

Speed on the downhills are not as fast, my DF buddy will pull away from me on every downhill when the speeds reach up into the 20's. Then when we hit the uphill his momentum will carry him farther meaning I have to exert more energy on every climb and it adds up. The benefit will be when I am back on the Dragon at BikeVA I should be good and strong.

 

Wow that is cool Ward. If you put a fairing on a Trike would that help it go faster? All the reading about trikes on BROL makes it seem like they are as fast or faster than 2 wheeled recumbents.

Bad thing is your faster on your trike than I am on my V-Rex..lol. So you can bring the trike if we ever ride together that way I can keep up!

 

Ya, that's neat Ward that you did the ride on the trike.

I've been needing a ride, I guess as both hips have been bothering a lot lately. We're doing some remodeling so have been busy and really tired. But Sunday we finally had another 70 degree day and although the wind was 25-35 mph I just had to go for a short ride. The wind made me realize how weak I've become but at least it did not stop me so it appears I'll live through this thing after all. lol

Then after the 70 degree day I had to get up this morning and start a fire in the stove. Although it did warm up some in the afternoon the NW wind was chilly. But I saw someone out mowing grass for the first time this year so spring is here! We even see a few trees that are starting to get some green in them. Nice.

 

A century on a trike just boggles my mind, Ward! The longest ride I've ever been able to do was 55 miles! Granted, I probably could have gone farther, but ran out of time and distance since it was a big loop. I'm also much slower than you even without Loke. 10.3 mph average if I don't have hard winds to fight.

And awesome to hear you saw the cougar. I hope he stays wary of people and doesn't get himself shot.

I rode yesterday. Just 12-ish miles. Even with breaks to look around and take pictures it took less than 2 hours. Really goes to show how much of an impact wind can have. I rode on May 1st as well. Only 15 miles into a constant 15 mph north wind with gusts of nearly 20. It took me over 4 hours and I felt like I'd been pounded on with a ball bat. Obviously, I'd learned my lesson on May 1st and cycled south WITH the wind instead of north against it.

I'll do the same today IF it gets above freezing. To think two weeks ago, I was broiling on a ride and soaking Loke's ears down and now, I'm wondering if it's going to start snowing as I look out the window at a gray sky and 30 F. It was 28 F when I woke up. This might just be a 'drive around sight-seeing' day instead of a cycle/fishing day for Jens, Loke and I.

I'm getting lots of pictures to share on my blog once we get back home!

Terii

 

Thanks everyone, Terii keep those pictures coming they are great and keep in mind that your trike is heavier and suspended which makes it slower than mine! Dennis, the strength will come back just don't get discourage. Brian, one day hopefully we will ride together and I bet you prove to be faster than I on the trike.

 

Well I related when I read this. My one and only century took 8 hours
and I slowed Don and Dave down. I told them to go on but they wouldn't.
They swore they would never ride with me again and I swore I would never
slow them down again. That's OK, I didn't like them much anyway.

Didn't know at the time they had me at a disadvantage. The Tour Easy
was a large and weighed over 40 LBS. It also had 130mm crank arms,
and I was riding with mostly one leg.....knee surgery 1965 ruined rt knee.

Liked the cougar part. Big cats and bears scare me. That's one
reason I cary with permit. I'd probably be et before the draw, but
the big 45 gives me courage. Maybe I can shoot an animal that
is trying to eat Jon sometime.