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

Sunny and warm. Only 1 hour to ride today.

13.6 miles.

1935 miles total!!!

65 miles to go.

 

Getting close, keep up the pace!

Curtis

 

Charged by a Horned Cow

Yesterdays ride: 4 riders: 85 miles

Encountered two cows outside of a fence.

One came out on the roadway.

Lined up behind Dave, lowered its head and dug in.
Front hoofs slipped and it went off to the right.

 

An obvious protest against 'leather bike seats'! Does one need a cattle prod if they ride with you?

 

Cows are such funny things. Highly curious critters. It scares Loke when we find a herd that wants to run with us along a fence line. He'll tuck tail and really pour on the speed.

I think he doesn't like cows so much when a pair of friendly ones I stopped to pat snorted in his face.

Terii

 

Ride report and my thoughts on the Ca700(a bit long)

Pretty funny, I have never been chased by cows. I think Loke has the right idea.

I took my wife Catrike 700 out for a shakedown ride yesterday. Left at 8am with it a cold 34 degrees. The forecast for a high of 63, clear with light winds. So basically perfect if you don't mind carrying a few extra clothes. The Ca700 is geared a lot differently than I am used to. With a MTB 22/34/44 crank that has 153 crank arms I saw quickly that I was going to be doing some spinning.

Shortly after starting our ride we were pulled over by a cop. Just started our ride about 8am on my wifes Catrike 700 when the siren goes off behind me. There was a driveway right there and a sidewalk so I eased over and parked. He stopped next to me and rolled his window down.

"You can't ride on this road"

"Sir, this is classified as a bicycle and I'm not trying to be argumentative
but yes I can."

"There is a 40 mph minimum speed limit on this four lane road, you can't maintain that, so you cannot ride here."

"Again, I beg to differ but yes it is legal for me to ride here."
(The speed limit on this city 4-lane is 40 mph, he then changes
tactics)

"Look, I just don't want to see you get run over by some kid doing 65 mph Texting on his way to Burger King, you need to go back to that last intersection and follow that road down to the bike path."

"Officer, I appreciate your concern I really do. However, it is legal to
ride on this street and I have the appropriate lights and safety equipment."
(He didn't like that answer either)

"That tiny little light isn't going to stop you from getting run over"
(a Dinotte 200L)

"Again, I appreciate your concern."

"I'm going to move on, it is your decision which way you go"
(He raises his windown and leaves)

I might have misquote a small amount but that was pretty much the gist of it. I really think if I had been riding an upright he wouldn't have stopped. My buddy stopped 40 feet in front of me and he might as well have been invisible.
I did appreciate the fact that he showed concern for my welfare.

So, we moved on staying on that road until we hit town where we met up with a couple of guys I know from my LBS shop. One older fella that I have about talked into a trike (he is looking at TerraTrikes and seems about ready to pull the trigger) and a younger guy, both of them riding MTB's, the younger guys was a full suspension.

The older guy didn't stay with us but for about 5 miles then turned back to meet up with another friend. The younger guy is a real monster. Medically retired GI that has lots of time to ride and usually puts in 70 or so every other day. He wasn't that fast but holding 13.5 or so on that bike was pretty impressive. After about 40 miles we went out separate ways Liner and I heading back towards the north marina about 15 miles away while he turned to head out the new rail-trail.

We didn't set any speed records covering 54 miles in over 5 hours and a temperature gain of about 30 degrees, but it gave me lots of time with the Ca700 to reflect on the differences between it and my Venom. Before I purchased the Venom I had looked at the Catikes and wasn't overly fond of the mesh seats. I definitely feel that they don't transmit power as well as not working for my back. interestedly enough my back didn't hurt a bit. I did see the power loss but I have to give the comfort check to the 700.
Direct vs Indirect steering its a toss up. The 700 was much more controllable on high speed descents but I feel that was more to the frame geometry itself than the steering. So, point for the 700 on frame geometry.

There is no doubt that the 700 is a well designed machine and makes the KMX look a bit like a kids toy. Somehow it managed to feel a bit cramped though. The handlebars and brake levers were nudged right up against the front fenders and with the 20" wheels that I have on the front it definitely wasn't as nimble as the KMX in low speed maneuvers.

It kinda reminded me of a Volvo sedan. Well built but a bit on the bland side.
The Venom is more like one of the tuned hot rods from Tokyo Drift. Not the most comfortable but all about speed. Speaking of speed I was a bit surprised at the lack of top end speed on the 700. Now, it has wide almost ballon tires on the front with fenders and it doesn't have the wide range of gearing that the Venom has...but...I just couldn't push it up into the upper 20's while sprinting like I can on the Venom. Getting to 17 or 18 is quick but it felt a bit harder to hold and again, didn't want to sprint up faster than that.

So basically I feel like I have the right trike for me and the right one for my
wife.

 

They smelled the Brooks Saddle......hehe

Pulled my camera out of the bar bag when first saw the cows,
not expecting anything unusual to happen, set it to Auto.

Then the cow charged Dave.
I snapped a pic when the cow was directly behind Dave as it put its head down.

Should have been set on video or manual, got a pic of my handle bars.

 

Yeah, for now...then after one ride with you and she sees how much easier it is for you to ride on your bike, she'll start asking for upgrades...haha, if she hasn't done so already. There may be a desire to become a speed demon secretly dying to break free.

 

Nah, she is free of greyhound brain.

 

THE STORY OF WABBIT STEW...

Today was GREAT!!! It was in the high 60s in Knoxville with partly cloudy skies. I am leaving out of town on Wednesday so I made sure my schedule was clear today and tomorrow of my normal appointments. I needed to get my rides in. (Don't you wish you had a job like mine???)

So I decided to put some miles in today. Took out Red and away we went to Cherokee Boulevard. I was planning to do an easy 20 miles today since tomorrow was 100% chance of rain.

I was riding my loops, listening to music and just enjoying the day. Saw lots of lady joggers I saw 3 other riders but no one was close enough to try catching until....

A loop is 3.26 miles. I rode 6 laps and was just going to do a partial lap to make it an even 20 miles but I thought to myself: "Nah, it is too pretty out." So I did lap 7 making the ride a total of 22.7 miles. But I was still feeling fine and decided to add one more lap at an easy pace then call it a day. I do have to do SOME work today!!!

So I am tooling along getting ready to round the first turn when I saw a guy who I had seen before hammering his pedals going the opposite but he had just rounded the turn. He had about a 20 second lead on me. I saw him and he saw me. WABBIT WACE WAS ON!!!!!!

Greyhound brain took over.... Up he went on this peddles and I rounded the turn and downshifted. I was peddling up the hill to get my speed up but when I topped the hill, I didn't see him at all.

Fast wabbit!!!! Hmmmm. I knew this guy had to be fast. The guy had on an Italian jersey and matching shorts and a matching hat. (He didn't wear a helmet but one of those cloth short billed riding hats.) He had on Oakleys and shaved his legs. The bike was expensive. One of "those" guys.

Anyway I kept peddling to see what 60 year old legs could do. Topped the second hill. Saw wabbit way out ahead of me pumping his peddles causing his body to sway left and right from the exertion. GAME ON!!! I could tell he felt the same way by his hard peddling.

Here wabbit, wabbit, wabbit....

I wasn't sure I could catch him, he was a fast wabbit but I keep up my speed. I was mashing the peddles which I rarely do but it kept my speed up even on roller hills.

Then God smiled on me. From a calm day, up came some very high headwinds starting to hit me directly from the front. My eyes teared. The wind was so pronounced, it tugged on my helmet because I have a big SUN visor attached to it to keep the sun out of my eyes. We had leaves forming tiny wind tornadoes in the road. And it just kept coming.

Well as I topped the next hill, there he was and only about 10 seconds ahead of me. I had cut the lead in half and we were half way on the way to the back turn. The head wind came at us again and I could see it really slowing down the wabbit even though he had dropped down on his handle bars. Ahh, poor baby!!! He kept looking back to see where I was. He knew he was being hunted!!!

Is wabbit getting tired?????

Now here comes the good part. As we got close to the back turn around he moves to the left side of the road. He wanted to swing wide right around the turn. I am sure to block me. But he didn't know how far back I was.

Well I wasn't far back at all. I made up the 10 second gap and came up behind him as we rounded the turn. I downshifted, made the turn right behind him then I moved on the right. He pulled into the middle of the road to block my progress and turned around to the left to see where I was. I was on the far right side and said "on your RIGHT" as I passed him. He jumped because he had no idea I made up that much time. I mashed the peddles and I saw him downshift and stand up on this peddles but he was TOASTED WABBIT.

I was only going to the parking lot which was 1000 feet from the turn around, but he was so far behind when I turn, I am sure I shocked him.

Wabbit stew!!!

So much for recumbents and old men being slow!!!

Great day.

25.9 miles today
1961 total miles
39 miles to go.

 

Shame on you.

 

Mmm... the irresistable smell of SMOKED RABBIT!

 

OOh! that was a really good write up Jon...that is classic and I loved reading every minute of it. Just makes me feel good for you. Smoked rabbit indeed...no mere dust bunny this time. hahahaha Glad you are closer to your goal.

 

Welcome to the brotherhood Jon. You have been fully initiated. Your dues will be riding more and more miles so that your legs get stronger and stronger increasing your ability to hunt and catch wabbits.

 

THE STORY OF WABBIT STEW...

THE STORY OF WABBIT STEW...

You expect me to believe all that stuff. Not that gullible. You can bring
your sorry self up to our 70 mile ride the 10th. You will give up on
all this foolish kid talk. In other words, put up or shut up. I'll try to get Don
and Dave up here, they'll clean your Yankee plow. If they don't show,
you will still have Mickey and me to contend with. Yep, this is a
Challenge, and I think you are too chicken to come up here and face
the Greene County boys and girls. We'll whip you like a red-headed
step child. The trail is the Bridge Burners, 12-10-2011 at 0830.



THE STORY OF Cooked Yankee Chicken




"Saturday, December 10, 2011
70th Birthday Bike Ride.
A Marathon Ride beginning on the Bridgeburners Extension followed by Harmon's Valley and Rader's Sidetrack.
We will then drive to Davy Crockett Park and ride over to the Philadelphia Church and do the ride there if there is enough daylight remaining.
You can ride any or all legs as you wish.
Begin at Harmon's Cemetery Trail-head at 8:30.
Call Ned Sanders at 638-4343 Evenings or 638-4551 days".


Here is a chance for you bad girls and boys to show your recumbent stuff

Me and the GRR will be there.
72 for me and 70 for the
main man.