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

Had to be back for an early lunch so I pulled out early about 6:15. My chain dropped on the inside and stuck pretty tight and I lost 10 minutes fixing it before I was back on the road.

Not much traffic, I passed one rider after about 15 miles. He was riding pretty well about 21 mph when I passed him doing 24. He didn't try to grab my wheel so I just kept the pace steady. I knew I had some climbs coming so I wanted to keep my average as high as possible.

Mile 31 or so I see three riders just ahead right as I hit the base of the steepest climb of the day. The first rider I passed right at the bottom and he gave me a "go man" as I went for #2. I caught him just before the top, it was Byron one of the local bike shop owners and he didn't have the breath to speak (neither did I). A short fast downhill then another not as steep climb. I caught the last guy on the downhill and I braked so that we started the climb together. It was close but I beat him by about 1 bike length to the top. We stopped and talked a minute before I headed back the way we came and they continued onward.

My average was 19.8 as I was returned to town but the traffic had picked up on the Riverwalk. That and several stoplights and my average was dropping quickly. A couple of tough hill right at the end and my average was down to 19.3.

Time: 03:25:47
Distance: 62.61 mi
Elevation Gain: 1,788 ft
Calories: 4,235 C
Timing
Time: 03:25:47
Moving Time: 03:14:37
Elapsed Time: 03:27:12
Avg Speed: 18.3 mph
Avg Moving Speed: 19.3 mph
Max Speed: 41.0 mph
SpeedPace
Elevation
Elevation Gain: 1,788 ft
Elevation Loss: 1,741 ft
Min Elevation: 231 ft
Max Elevation: 497 ft

 

Ward,

What bent were you riding?

 

Oh, The Dragon! No way I could coax that much speed from the Venom.

 

heh heh I always like reading your posts, I sigh and relish every moment that my eyes see the words "...I caught..." that is just great.

 

I hope you can imagine the look of resignation in their eyes as they are passed by a recumbent on a 9-10% grade. I'll try and keep em coming. Since I'm riding the trike more to build strength the best I can do is try and hold the faster riders off for a while. But, I'm trying to pay attention who rides when...

 

Jens bullied me out the door yesterday so Loke and I got a ride in. Had 28 miles mapped, but only did 20 of them since we got a late start. It was past 2 pm when I started pedaling from a church off to the west.

Loke ran pretty good and the weather wasn't too bad. Slightly on the cool side, partly cloudy with isolated showers. Rain hit me twice. The first was a very brief shower. It only stuck around long enough for me to wrestle the rain cover on my camera bag. The second one was a bit more serious. It lasted about 20 minutes, but came just as I coasted onto the grounds of a church ruin set in a grove of trees. Most of the trees were old spruces with branches and needles layered thick enough to stop bullets let alone rain drops. So, I had a mostly dry (except for what the winds blasted on me from the sides) wait as it drenched the fields around me.

It was VERY windy still (18-22 mph with higher gusts ), but I'd actually planned for it. The route was entirely north and east since the wind was mostly blowing NNE.

Oh! And with that ride I broke last year's total distance. Last year 380 miles. Distance for this year so far? 390.

Hmm. I seem to be missing a few rides on Bike Journal since it says 360. I'll have to track those down.

The only real annoyance to the day was when I realized one of the churches I was aiming for I'd already been to this year!

Terii

 

This reminds me of the duel a fast, local D.F. rider and I had.

It took place last Summer, on a long hilly road, toward the end of my ride.

He'd pass me uphill;
I'd fly past him downhill;
we'd be about even on the flat.
On the last short, steep uphill, he was keeping his eye on me... to
see how fast he was gaining distance on me.
Not fast enough, apparently: he kept looking over his shoulder at me.
On the other side of the hill, I rocketed by him... and kept track of how
much distance I was gaining on him.

This is normal, you know. Happens this way all the time.
It really just highlights the different performance envelopes
of two different bicycle geometries, right?
Right.

This story also tells me how two different riders ride on public
streets.
I ride with a rear-view mirror:
I know that I share the road with lots of other, non-racing type people.
I must keep my eye on them!

He rode -and probably still rides- with no rear-view mirror.
He rides like real racers do, when real racers race on controlled-access roads.
He does not keep his eyes on lots of other, non-racing type people whom he shares the public roads with.

I gotta admit, it's fun to sneak up on 'em from behind.
They really can't see me coming!

---

The end of the little duel:
I was toasted after a few miles of this fun stuff.
The next long hill? I spun up it in a nice, low gear at about 7MPH.
The younger, fitter, faster (mirrorless) racer climbed away from me
doing about 16MPH.

It was a nice workout for me.
I hope my rabbit got a little fun out of it too!

 

40.1 mile club ride this morning. Its getting warm out now!

 

Quick afternoon ride, it was about 95 degrees outside but much worse on the blacktop riding the trike. I had planned on a bit over 40 miles but an approaching thunderstorm convinced me to cut it short at 28 miles. No rabbits but I did manage 15.9 mph average with 1700 feet of climbing.

Made it to the truck just as the rain started, stopped at my LBS show to drop off the trike for a tune-up just as the tornado warnings went off. Whew

 

OK my latest ride was DRIVING my new V Rex to Mark Power at Power Up Cycling to get tuned up. I just had new Velocity rims put on and I heard noise from my back wheel. Mark immediately knew my back spokes were at least 10 pounds light in tension.

I had a delightful conversation with Mark. He realized very quickly that this location was manufacturing not retail. (He buffed off recumbent off his outdoor sign to eliminate confusion in Newport. Not surprising!!!!) In Marks words, "Guys came in and saw a tail sock and said that would be great hauling beer around." Mark added his own comment that it would also hold 2 dead opossum. I asked him if he heard banjo music yet!!!

He had several bents which he was customizing and shipping completely assembled. He showed me the shipping card board container he shipped a Bachetta in. It looked like a card board coffin!!!! And he told me he had to ship Old Dominion freight because of the size and weight.

He had a custom trike and Bachetta in his shop. Both looked really cool.

It took me 1 1/2 hours to drive to his shop and back AND I had to drive through really bad thunderstorms (i.e. most cars were off the shoulder with their emergency lights flashing) when I came back.

Very happy to support Mark. His Florida shop had 8 people waiting for him when he opened and it never let up. Now he gets 2 people a WEEK!!

So please support him. He is a great guy! We are very happy to have a good recumbent dealer in East Tennessee!!!

 

I rode yesterday! 12.67 miles. It might be time to change my tires though. 2 flats in 3 rides. So, around mile 6 I found myself sitting on the dirt surface of the turnoff to a little residential area with no space to get off the 'road'. I was having the worst time finding the hole when a guy stopped to ask if everything was okay. I told him I was trying to fix a leak, but couldn't find it.

He drove away, went back by 1 min later. 10 min later, he came back... with a bucket and two soda bottles of water. 30 seconds later, I was fixing the leak. Wasn't that nice?

Other than the flat and bucking into the wind, it was a nice ride. Loke ran well though he went the entire distance with his socks since he ran yesterday without them. Two castles, two churches and quite a few runestones!

Terii

 

Enjoying the ride!

As most of you know by know, I judge the enjoyment of my travels between point A and point B by the pleasantness of the surroundings. So when I wanted to try out a new camera and an external mic I chose the Cades Cove and Townsend, TN trail loops totaling around 20 miles.

I'm real satisfied with the quality of sound but need to tweak on the image stabilization. I also shot this clip in a very low resolution setting and will go from there. The camera/mic data will be reported on an appropriate thread elsewhere later, so this is merely a 'shared ride'. Enjoy!

 

Karen and I got to do 20 miles on the Silver Comet yesterday. We started from the Hiram trailhead, near mile 14 and rode toward Atlanta. It was a nice ride. There were lots of folks on the trail. Today we plan to ride west from the Rambo Road trailhead, then tomorrow west from the Hiram trailhead. There may be some overlap, but we expect to have a good time. I'll say more about today and tomorrow's rides after they happen. Maybe I'll even get some pictures.

As we were setting up our rides in the Hiram parking lot about 2:00 pm yesterday afternoon, a fellow on a DF stopped to chat. Turns out he normally rides a recumbent but had transported a DF to sell at an organized ride in Auburn, AL, was on his way home (Hampton, VA!), and all he had available to ride on the Silver Comet and Chief Ladiga was an upright. He said he's on BROL.

After getting to Atlanta yesterday, we discovered that a movie we've been wanting to see is showing at the Midtown Art Cinema. So last night we took our lives in our hands and drove into Atlanta to take in this show. It's called Forks Over Knives. I bet Buddy would like it. It's about plant based nutrition and I thought it was pretty good.

 

Way to go you all

Man this is nice. I enjoyed two hours this morning reading, looking
and paying attention. You people are great. Thanks for the blogs
Terii and Tom. The movie is great Ed. Nice reports Ward, Jon, Steve,
Brian and all. God bless RRI and all on this Memorial Day. Now let's go out
ride and report. Love you all, Buddy.

 

Skyline Drive Ride Report

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/441906

It was not a fun ride for me

4 of us from the Winchester Wheelmen started at the base of Skyline Drive until I parted from the group at Hogback mountain and Turned around. They ended up doing 50 miles I did 42.

As soon as I got on my bike I started up the road and POP my darn seat rod bolt broke. That really pissed me off. I had to use two Zip ties to hold the rod in place. I was worried the entire ride that it would fall and I would crash or the other bolt would break. I could not put any hard pressure against the seat back. It held until the ride was over..Luckily

Seat back rod repair- held until ride was over




WARD-Keep an eye out for the guy in the Green Jersey and Beard. His name is Buck and he will be at Bike Virginia. He is holding his single speed belt driven bike that he rides everywhere. He is 60+ and can smoke a lot of people on that single speed. Buck is a mountain climbing monster! If you see him say hi! I told him that there will be some fast recumbent riders gunning for him..lol



Chuck-Me-Buck on top of Hogback-For me it was 21 miles of **** climbing- I turned around and they road on for another 5 miles. Buck has been riding skyline drive for 20 years and says he never sees a recumbent up there and was congratulating me on making it up to that point.I was like no ****. I wonder why you never see any up here.lol



Rex above the clouds! It was a beautiful ride overall but my 42 miles came with 4,953 miles of climbing. My total average speed was (hold on to your seats) 9.5 miles an hour.



Here is a Video of the ride--. I had to add some music so that it covered my cussing, grunting and groaning..lol..Enjoy I am going to go have a beer or 3.