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

WOW!!! Terii,

Quite an adventure!

 

An epic ride for sure terii. Those are the ones that arn't as much fun while ridng them but you get to talk about much longer. Poor Loke, could have been worse though. My female greyhound Zoey was bitten by a snake on her snout and it swelled up making her look like pretty pitiful. She had to get a steroid shot and take antibiotics.

I like how you keep getting out there no matter what happens. Thats inspiring!

 

I love taking my car to get an oil change! Why would anyone love to sit in a shop for hours waiting on there car to get serviced?

I don't! The dealership that i bought my car from offers free oil changes and is in Leesburg Va. Right next to the W&OD trail. Its a great excuse to put the bike on the car and go riding! I dropped my car off at 0900 and took off down the trail. I was holding a 17 mph average for the first 15 or so miles, then i started hitting the intersections which really took a toll on my overall average.

I ended up riding from Leesburg, VA to Arlington VA and back for a total of 60.02 miles with a 15 mph average. It took me 4 hours and 30 minutes that is eating and bs'ing with a buddy I passed on the way back.

They have a great BBQ place called Carolina BBQ right on the trail and i stopped for a bnite to eat before finishing in Leesburg. I amlost bonked around mile 40 because I had not eaten anything.


I saw 3 trikes and 4 2 wheeled recumbents aand we all waved at each other.

After looking at the GPS files I did not realize that the W&OD trail had 1698 feet of elevation.. http://ridewithgps.com/trips/268495

 

Rode a tough 40 miler on the trike today. My goal was to CRAM as many steep climbs in as short a ride as possible. 5 steep climbs surrounded by rollers with the average grade of each big climb between 6.1 and 7%. Speed wasn't an issue but I managed 12.1 average for the entire ride.

I had issue's with one of my brake calpiers and ended up having to take it off completely leaving me a bit apprehensive on some of these steep downhills. But I just held her back and took it slow on the ones that had intersections or tight curves. That did cause my overall speed to be a bit less than previous rides in this area.

Another isssue is with the difference in climbing between my Garmin and what MapMyRide see. The Garmin (which has an altimeter) measured a bit over 3600 feet of climbing for the ride. MMR showed just under 2000. basically only measuring the steep climbs on the route and not reading all of the rollers we encountered.

Anyway, 3 category 5's and 2 category 4's. Not too shabby.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/36432762

 

Today may have been my longest bike ride ever at 66.47 miles. I went to Clinton, all the way to I-75 where Fox Toyota is, then turned around and rode south through Oak Ridge all the way to the Weigel's at I-40, then turned around again and rode back home. I mapped the route on DailyMile.

Before I reached Clinton, a silver SUV moved over in the left lane to pass me. I was at the right edge of the right lane. Just as they passed, the driver leaned on his horn, making me jump, and held it until he was 50 feet ahead or so. I hope he got to feeling better.

Most of the folks I encountered were friendly and curious about my bike. At the convenience store by the road to Fox Toyota (the northern extremity of my ride), a young fellow parked beside me, grinned at the bike and asked how it's steered. I showed him how the handlebar is under the seat and said, "You sit on the handlebar," grinning back at him. He said, "That's crazy." I took it as a compliment.

North of Clinton, highway 61 has nice, wide shoulders. It's a pretty good place to ride. If I do this ride again, though, I might look for a way to get through Clinton on residential and back roads. Highway 61 in Clinton has no shoulders and very rough sidewalks in places.

On the way back through Clinton, I stopped at the McDonald's for some sweet iced tea and used their wifi to check alternate routes back to Oak Ridge. I found a nice back route -- Sulphur Springs Road and Laurel Road. They took me alongside a railroad track where I saw a pickup truck with rail rollers riding along the track. I thought at first that my bike was making a strange noise, and then this railroad pickup went by and I realized that's where the noise was coming from.

Laurel Road joins the 61 that runs along the northeast side of Oak Ridge, through Marlow. Laurel Road has a long down hill as it approaches 61 where I hit my max speed of the trip, around 35 mph. Then the last bit of 61 down to 95 is another long downhill. Finally, I got to the bottom and turned right to go back into Oak Ridge.

I was shooting for 60 miles total. When I passed the Starbuck's in Oak Ridge, I was on mile 33 or so. I know that Starbuck's is about 2 miles from home, so I figured to get a total of 60, I'd need to be to 58 when I got to Starbuck's on the way back. Halfway between 33 and 58 is 45.5, so I figured if I turned around when I got to that point, I should get the total I wanted.

I stopped at the nice Shell station with the car wash in Oak Ridge to eat an apple and refill my water bottle. A gentleman going into the store stopped and ask me how far I ride. I told him I was shooting for 60 miles today. He was friendly and interested. Nice guy to talk to.

The bike lanes on 95 heading out of Oak Ridge to the southwest are SO NICE! I love them. I can hardly wait for the extension to get finished so the next three miles will get the same kind of treatment. The completed bike lanes are about 4 miles long, from the intersection of Turnpike and Illinois out to the guard shack. Then there's 3 miles of barrels to dodge as you ride on out. As I started into the barrels, I noticed a guy on a DF going the other way on the other side of the road staring over at me like he'd never seen a recumbent before. Maybe he hadn't.

The ride on out 95 was uneventful. I got to 45.5 and considered turning around, but I wanted to get to the Weigel's at I-40 and get a cool drink so I pushed on, thinking it was just another mile or so. 46.5 came and went. So did 47.5. Finally, at about 48.5, I got to the Weigel's. That's where the extra 6 miles came from.

While I was at the Weigel's wolfing down a Clif bar and a banana, I watched some folks in a Prius refilling their tank and getting ready to go on. One of them was wearing a turban. The others were wearing unusual white caps. I gave them a friendly wave as they pulled out. The driver waved back.

I left Weigel's at 6:28. I had said I'd be home by 7:30, so I started pushing to get on back, wondering whether I could make it from Weigel's back to my house in Oak Ridge in an hour. As it turns out, it takes about an hour and 20 minutes. I stopped and called from the library parking lot at 7:33 to let Karen know I was still safe and would be home shortly.

Total pedal time was 5:11:16, total travel time was about 6:50:00. My guesstimate of how long the ride would take before I left was 5 hours. The ride wound up being 6 miles longer than I expected, so I did pretty well as far as pedal time is concerned. For touring, I think pedal time will be less important than arrival time, so for longer rides, I need to factor in rest and refreshment stops. I was surprised at how much time I spent stopped -- about 1:40:00. Based on total time, my average speed was under 10 -- about 9.5.

*Brian: That's a great idea for something to do while waiting for an oil change. I'll have to steal it if I get the chance.

*Ward: Good job on the climbs.

*Terii: Congratulations on the camping trip. I hope Loke recovers quickly and completely.

 

I noticed we own identical recumbents. But I must have a defective one because mine doesn't go as fast as yours!!!! Bummer!!!

 

OK,

I am being dropped like a bad haircut. I see Ed and Tom BOTH passed my miles and are 100 miles ahead. Dave, Ward, Paul and Brian have long since left me to rot by myself. I haven't ridden much because of weather and vacation. So I posted today a ride from Ellijoy and Old Walland Highway to Townsend and back.

I rode this ride yesterday with friends for 24 miles. Got there today at 8:00 AM and no one showed (which was my guess being a last minute post) so off I went. This was a shake down ride of my bent before I take it up to the Erie Canal next week. Had a new over the seat bag I wanted to try out with my water bladder. Worked great. Using new drink call Accelerade instead of Cytomax. Seemed to work just fine. So I am riding along and stopped to stretch my legs and get a drink and I hear this misquito buzzing behind me. Here comes a trike making an buzzing noise. As the trike got closer, the rider gave me "the finger". "Buddy!!!" I yelled. Here he was with his gas engine assisted trike he has been working on. So we rode a while then he said nature was calling so he took a right over a bridge. He told me he would catch up with me. Well, I went all the way into Townsend and turned around at the end of the bike path and was heading back and here comes Buddy again. He cut across the road and I thought we was going to go with me, but then he did a 180 and headed back down the road. That was the total extent of our ride together. But I was fascinated by his gas assisted bent. The Honda engine is very quiet at idle and isn't obnoxious when Buddy gave it the gas. Of course Buddy remains obnoxious all the time!!!

Passed by Bill & Keila's new store. It has Trike Rental on the awning. Looks good. I stopped by but they are not open yet. Here is a picture of it.



Rode 30 miles today for a total of 54 for the weekend. Not bad for me because I don't normally ride on the weekend.

It is a beautiful ride. Here is one other picture I took along the way.

 

You can catch up over the next three of weeks. Will be either preparing for the trip or actually in Colorado & Utah. Rocky Mtn. NP, Arches NP, Pikes Peak, Gread Sand Dunes NP, Mesa Verde NP, Colorado Park. No cycling. Will be a Challenge just to breathe while hiking at 12-13,000 feet. Oxygen level there is less than half that here at home. I understand there's even an oxgyen bar at the top of Pike's Peak. Bottled water has been described as "one of the greatest cons of the 20th century" and as "marketing's answer to the emperor's new clothes". If that can happen, I s'pose someone can charge for air, too, especially where there isn't enough.

 

that V-Rex just needs to be broken in. It seems that if it is ridden 2000 miles in about 6 months it speeds up lots :jester:

 

OK Ward,

I will ship it to you to break in. Then I can go fast!!!

 

I did the 4th Annual Shenandoah Valley boys and girls club heritage ride today. Ended up with 74 + miles around the same roads I usually ride on every day but it was for a good cause! IN a sea of 200 or so DF's i was the only recumbent.

I had a great showing passing wedgies left and right. I promised to wait for my buddies but i just couldn't help myself at the first rest stop area at the 15 mile mark I had a 18.5 average. The next stop I had around 17.3, but then I had to slow way down to wait on my buds and ended up with a 14 mph average. (Plus i was shooting this video for the boys and girls club)

This is the ride that started my road riding last year. Last year i did 30 miles on a mountain bike. This year 70 miles on a recumbent.

I think My V-Rex is broken, not broken in..Last week on Skyline Drive I broke the left rear seat bolt. I fixed it and guess what? the right one broke today! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. This is going to be a difficult fix because i do not know how to get a bolt in there with the gearing. RIght now i just have 5 zip ties holding it until i can figure out how to fix it.

I think both of us need to ship our bikes to Ward..lol.his trike is faster than both our V-Rex's

 

Brian,

Thanks for sharing the video. Makes me feel like I rode it with you!!!

 

Nice Brian, I see you are starting to get a bit of Greyhound brain. The next thing you know you will be perusing the classifieds on BROL and reading up on faster bents. For the same amount of energy you are expending to ride 16 mph I run 18 or so on my Dragon. There are some beautiful bikes out there for sale right now, a VK2 lowracer and an M5 carbon highracer. Both are as fast or faster than my bike.

So anyway, start saving

 

I have already been reading about faster bents..lol.. I will probably start looking next year when i get my tax returns but for now I'll stick to my V-Rex. The next one I buy I want to test ride first. Whatever I get has to be versatile because I want to continue doing Rando rides. I may try a 400k In July but my goal next year is to the the entire series. Right now I think I would be happy with a Corsa. I am not to thrilled about low racers. Still I am pondering the Gold Rush my buddy has and may want to sell. Decisions Decisions. Whatever it is it has to be good at climbing..

Nice one in Tenn http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/showthread.php?t=72862

 

Have you looked at the forums at bachettabikes.com? Those boys do randos all the time on their highracer stick bikes. Actually, you can find used Strata's pretty cheap and then upgrade as desired. The steel frame is more comfortable than the Corsa's alum (I have had both) and you can put whichever seat you want. You will gain the aerodynamic advantages of the highracer which is where the real overall gains are but if you want the least expensive light bike the Corsa is the one. Also, if you are a masher like I am, hard shell seats climb better than mesh ones.