I got back on the bike after three weeks of swimming and vacationing with the boys. Like I had mentioned at the beginning of the year getting back into the swing of things can be scary. Also I treated myself to a new pair of shoes, after 18 years on the old ones, who knew that grown feet changed so much.
Was going with the tall son as he shopped for a new pair of shoes and figured hey, I deserve a new pair of shoes too. The good thing my size was in stock. Our friends at Bike Source fitted tall son perfectly, with growing room, and then had him order a half size bigger. They have watched him grow the last couple of years. Anyway I picked up a pretty spiffy pair of Specialized Body Geometry shoes in white, I like a little flash. It is amazing the technology that has occurred over the last 18 years in bike shoes. The new ones are like slippers that seem to self cool as you ride, amazing, simply amazing. After the down time and armed, or should say footed, with my new shoes I took off on my first ride. My time came up, my cadence came up and I did not hurt. No pain in the ankle, knee or hip joints could this be from shoes? I waited a day took another, same outcome, the next day a 30 miler and wow. Till I attempted to move the cleats from a neutral position on the shoe no pain. The last 12.5 of that 30, after my SWAG adjustment, my ankles, knees and hips burned. So much for SWAG. The cleats went back to neutral. The tall kid’s shoes came in; I set his cleats very neutral, with a plum line and a ruler neutral. He took a ride and we slightly dialed the feel in till he could not feel any discomfort and we were good. Good enough to jump into a 55 mile ride with a couple of friends, fast friends. We were a group of 5 and though I have stayed away from group riding just because of my slowness. It didn’t make much of a difference, we all rode with each other at one time or another, I pushed a little harder, and we all had some really good conversation, good laughs and an excellent ride. I really need to reevaluate the whole group ride thing, especially if it is a small group. If you have been worried about your abilities take that step and give it a try, you may have the same happy surprise. Even the female in the group made me feel good by riding with me about 14 miles even though she was, tall son fast, and showed it down the stretch. The new shoes, never thought about them or my joints the whole ride. Bottom line if your going to bike, fit is everything.
Speaking of those shoes, what’s a new shoe without putting feet with new socks into them? Throw in thoughts of having new shoes and getting accustom to getting in and out of the pedals, tall son gets me thinking, this would be the time to switch to a larger platform carbon fiber pedal. This gets me thinking more, not a good thing in my case. Tall son has a new high end Giro helmet, mine is a good 10 years old, not acceptable for safety. New shoes, new socks, possibly new pedals and skid lid, hey my bib shorts are looking a little saggy. So the question here is; bicycling a money pit or the more you bicycle things just wear vs. ever notice how one new part leads to another. Oh by the way I just received a new Performance Cycle’s warehouse clearance catalogue and it looks like I might be able to save a little over $200 on my recent thoughts. Timing is everything.
As for the actual riding in August, 151,8 miles in 5 rides, I deserve some new gear.
Till Next Time
Ride Fast, Ride Safe, But Ride
“G”
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
OK, I Didn’t Make A Post The First of The Week
I know how important it is to have a good group of followers and to keep them a blogger must be consistent. I also have had times I haven’t been that consistent and the amount I have been read shows the drop. Life does really get in the way of all of us, especially if you have a real life. I have thought of what I was going to write in this post, being first after vacation, and as I had said I came across some things on the vacation that was of interest.
On our first day of the trip we were heading west on I-70, going through some of the canyon lands of Utah and observed an odd thing. Out of nowhere, in the middle of nowhere, at the crest of a long climb, there was a cyclist. On a road bike, the full roadie outfit, no luggage or bags, and just hammering away. I thought, WOW, this guy is nuts to be out here alone. It was about 1:00 pm and touching just under 90 degrees. Then I thought this could be cool if you had a couple of friends to do it with. I was now a couple of miles down the road and there were two more, same shorts and jersey as the first guy, no bags and a pretty good pace. Looking ahead, tall son saw another single rider. As we passed same thing and we figured this must be a local club ride only there was nothing that resembled local. Up a head we saw a van with a major load of bikes on the roof and a rear rack and I said “I bet this was all part of a tour company”. I was partially correct; it was a tour company with mountain bikes from a company that did tours back in Moab. All in all we passed about 10 of the roadies. Watching them ride a good pace, especially at the front, I thought this really would be cool. Traveling down the interstate going to exciting places, cool. I did see a couple of good swerves with all the crap in the emergency stopping lane they were riding in. Bottles, trash and nasty chunks of blown out semi tires. Then an actual crossed my mind again, no bags, how many flats have they had or what are they using for tires. All and all it was pretty darn cool even though they were spread out over about 7 miles.
Since this was a boy’s road trip and Mom doesn’t like Vegas the boys wanted to spend a few nights there. One of the impressive things in Vegas, to me anyway, is the Metro Police Department bike unit. Now the casinos have their security, also dressed in Yellow shirts and black shorts and some, a lot, are also on bikes. But Metro is impressive. It caught my interest since I started a PD bike unit in the early 90’s and I attempt to talk to a couple of the guys every trip I make to Sin City. They travel in a minimum of pairs, spread a lot of good PR by taking endless silly photos for the tourists and are very, very visible. For those of you that may not have taken the drive to the 24 hr never sleep city, you would be amazed at the amount of people and wonder, recession? I’m not talking at rush hour; I’m talking about 3:00 am. The strip is so backed up it is easier to attempt to walk it rather than drive or take the monorail, bus or cab. On occasion you can see a swarm, 4-6 members of the bike unit, crossing 8 lanes of traffic going against the traffic at 2 -3 times the speed of the “moving” traffic. The grace and precision is that of the water show at the Bellagio and should be seen by all. They jump the center medians, the curbs; avoid the crowds all without a hesitation or mishap. They are as cool as the roadies in the middle of nowhere.
The Ventura Performance Cycle was closed down and the space was empty. We did not see any other shops during the trip. I was really expecting them to be more visible.
On our first day of the trip we were heading west on I-70, going through some of the canyon lands of Utah and observed an odd thing. Out of nowhere, in the middle of nowhere, at the crest of a long climb, there was a cyclist. On a road bike, the full roadie outfit, no luggage or bags, and just hammering away. I thought, WOW, this guy is nuts to be out here alone. It was about 1:00 pm and touching just under 90 degrees. Then I thought this could be cool if you had a couple of friends to do it with. I was now a couple of miles down the road and there were two more, same shorts and jersey as the first guy, no bags and a pretty good pace. Looking ahead, tall son saw another single rider. As we passed same thing and we figured this must be a local club ride only there was nothing that resembled local. Up a head we saw a van with a major load of bikes on the roof and a rear rack and I said “I bet this was all part of a tour company”. I was partially correct; it was a tour company with mountain bikes from a company that did tours back in Moab. All in all we passed about 10 of the roadies. Watching them ride a good pace, especially at the front, I thought this really would be cool. Traveling down the interstate going to exciting places, cool. I did see a couple of good swerves with all the crap in the emergency stopping lane they were riding in. Bottles, trash and nasty chunks of blown out semi tires. Then an actual crossed my mind again, no bags, how many flats have they had or what are they using for tires. All and all it was pretty darn cool even though they were spread out over about 7 miles.
Since this was a boy’s road trip and Mom doesn’t like Vegas the boys wanted to spend a few nights there. One of the impressive things in Vegas, to me anyway, is the Metro Police Department bike unit. Now the casinos have their security, also dressed in Yellow shirts and black shorts and some, a lot, are also on bikes. But Metro is impressive. It caught my interest since I started a PD bike unit in the early 90’s and I attempt to talk to a couple of the guys every trip I make to Sin City. They travel in a minimum of pairs, spread a lot of good PR by taking endless silly photos for the tourists and are very, very visible. For those of you that may not have taken the drive to the 24 hr never sleep city, you would be amazed at the amount of people and wonder, recession? I’m not talking at rush hour; I’m talking about 3:00 am. The strip is so backed up it is easier to attempt to walk it rather than drive or take the monorail, bus or cab. On occasion you can see a swarm, 4-6 members of the bike unit, crossing 8 lanes of traffic going against the traffic at 2 -3 times the speed of the “moving” traffic. The grace and precision is that of the water show at the Bellagio and should be seen by all. They jump the center medians, the curbs; avoid the crowds all without a hesitation or mishap. They are as cool as the roadies in the middle of nowhere.
We did take a kind of a ride one morning on the beach in Ventura California. The Tall Son wanted to ride in a two person surrey and we attempted to stay up with the little guy on a recumbent trike. It was fun but made us wish we would have brought our bikes.
The Ventura Performance Cycle was closed down and the space was empty. We did not see any other shops during the trip. I was really expecting them to be more visible.Did you hear about the LA Mayor? Typical politician, bike friendly roads didn’t mean squat until, while riding downtown last month, he was hit by a cab that pulled out in front of him. He fractured his shoulder. Local cyclists did not even know he rode, but now sharing the road is a priority, funny how that works eh?
Till Next Post
Ride Fast, Ride Safe, But Ride
“G”
Thursday, August 12, 2010
On Vacation Miss The Bike
Sorry about the gap in posts, I realize that is a blogger’s #1 no no but, life really does get into the way.
Son’s and I have been out of state for a little over a week and should be home and back on the bike the this weekend. We have missed the bikes and need to reconsider taking them on the next adventure. We did get to ride on the beach with a bicycle type contraption, but not the same.
I will have some observations to share, from group riding on the interstates to the remarkable bike units of the Las Vegas Metro PD.
Look for me again early next week.
Till Then
Ride Fast, Ride Safe But Ride
“G”
Son’s and I have been out of state for a little over a week and should be home and back on the bike the this weekend. We have missed the bikes and need to reconsider taking them on the next adventure. We did get to ride on the beach with a bicycle type contraption, but not the same.
I will have some observations to share, from group riding on the interstates to the remarkable bike units of the Las Vegas Metro PD.
Look for me again early next week.
Till Then
Ride Fast, Ride Safe But Ride
“G”
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