Category: Activities

Yesterday I purchased a new Trek 4300 from Cycling Spoken Here. It was a great price and comes with free lifetime service at the shop. I also picked up an under-the-seat saddlebag. And then, gore and I hit the road.

We started at Maynard at road up the Black Creek Greenway. The Dynasty hill was tough, but I made it up without stopping and walking. Being able to get down into a low gear really helped. I didn’t stop till I got to Crabtree. That’s a small victory for me and it’s all because of the bike. It felt good, I wasn’t exhausted at that point like I used to be with my old bike. We pressed on into Crabtree trails so I could get a taste of the offroad. I enjoyed it a lot. And by the time I got halfway back home, I was finally starting to feel my energy waning. Though, I made it back with just a small stop before hitting the Dynasty hill once more. After the ride, I noticed a few things that were bothering me. So we stopped by Cycling Spoken Here and they trued my front wheel and adjusted the front derailer for me.

I wasn’t too sure about front suspension. It just didn’t exist when I was younger and it made the front end feel mushy. But going down any rough trails, I clearly felt a smoother ride and I felt the front wheel stayed on the ground better at higher speeds.

When I decided to pick up biking again, I found that my brother had left two bikes under my deck. One was worthless, but the other was workable and I cleaned it up some and pronounced it ride-able. I really wanted to use this bike and not buy a new one. I was trying to be thrifty or financially effecient. I’ve been riding three times now and after giving gore’s bike a try, I am convinced that the $50 bike is doubling the resistance on a ride. That’s not really a bad thing if your goal is to ride solo and feel like 3 miles is a brick wall ride. This bike also has a few features that I think are considered “retro” now. Calliper brakes, no real low gearing, and weighs close to 30 pounds.

So, I’ll be shopping around, looking for a new bike.

Shew. I’m beat. Another day of riding with gore. This time we started out a little farther noth along the Black Creek Greenway at the North Cary Park. For my second time out, this time was much better.

Right out of the back of the park, the entrance to the greenway is a winding downhill path. The greenway path heading north was pretty nice and slightly downhill. A quick dip by Crabtree Lake still had me winded. We crossed the earthen dam and headed up the Umstead access road across highway 40. From here on up to the airport lookout was pretty tough on me. A steady, slow, uphill that sapped my strength. By the time we made it to the lookout, my legs were numb. Taking some Gatorade really helped a lot at this point. I could use more water on these rides. The ride back was awesomely fast and enjoyable. That long uphill turned into a good downhill with a very few uphills. We zoomed back to the greenway. It wasn’t a bad ride back from that point, but I had to take a few small breathers and walk up the final hill to the park.

So many people tell new riders what to buy or use. One of those things is a pair of riding shorts. This ride I had some and they really helped dampen the impact of a hardtail bike. BUT! I am really glad I did not buy them right off and never know why they are important, what they fix, etc.

I’m also not sure how much of my effort when riding is being directed at fighting my bike. It’s not a high dollar bike and has some hardware on it that is a pain. Nothing is quick lock, not even the seat. The brakes are calliper and don’t work so well. The frame is pretty heavy even compared to gore’s low-end Trek bike. So, I feel like the bike is making things a little harder. I’m not sure if that means a new bike, or a tune-up. We’ll see.

Yesterday afternoon, gore and I rode our bikes along the local greenway. It’s a first step in starting to bike. I probably rode to far, too hard, for the first time. So far, my butt is the only thing that’s hurting. Bike seats just take time to get used to. We went to REI afterwards since I wanted to get some riding shorts on the cheap (or as cheap as possible). Regardless of how rough it was, how winded I was, and how much my legs hurt, it was very fun to ride again.

I purchased a roof mounted bike rack for my car. It showed up yesterday and I enlisted gore’s help in installing it. Despite waves of mosquitos, it did get installed. And I put my bike on it, and drove around some. Works great so far. I might end up re-installing it since I am not convinced it’s attached perfectly. Maybe if we get some cooler weather and the mosquitos die off.

The place where I live has a very old refridgerator. So old, that the freezer portion does not auto-defrost. It’s basically a box with aluminum walls and over time layers of ice build up. So we tossed what food we could and stowed the rest at Stone’s place. Then we got down to exploiting technology to turn a 24 hour process into 2 hours of work.

We looked online and many people recommended using rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle. Some said to try a hair dryer. The alcohol spray bottle actually helped to turn any loose ice into slush which we removed quickly. But, this method was not going to remove the solid ice very quickly. So we developed a two pronged approach that yeilded the best results. First, we turned the fridge off so that the appliance was not working against us. We aimed a fan at the freezer and boiled some water. Between the fan moving air through the freezer, setting the pot of boiling water in, and occasionally spraying alcohol onto the ice, things started to loosen up. The key seemed to be letting the pot of boiled water sit in the freezer till it was room temperature. Eventually there would be openings where a spatula would easily wedge a huge section of ice away from the wall. The fridge labels recommended 24 hour time for a full defrost and we had all the ice out in 2. Not too bad.

I archived the old site and it’s in the menu on this site.

Listener purchased a mountain bike today. Putting it together was more work than I thought it would be, but it worked out really well, I think. It’s not a high dollar bike, but it was better that most of those $50 Wal-Mart bikes. We’ll see how it works out.

Riding a bike. It’s something most people do as a kid and I continued to do until I had a car. And I probably should have never stopped.

So, I’ve been kicking around the idea of getting back into biking. It’s not so simple as it used to be back in the 1970’s and 80’s. As a kid, my neighborhood was fairly low on traffic. Riding all over the place was pretty safe. But even my old neighborhood now has a lot of through streets that are really not bike friendly anymore. The good news is that there are biking trails and greenways all around my town … and they all required a helmet. I realize the reasons, but I don’t have to like it.

And then there’s the matter of having a bike. Any serious biker is going to recommend tossing $300 or more into a beginner bike. Plus potentially needing a bike rack if you need to drive to any trails. That’s a serious investment for someone who just wants to get back in and not drop $600 before even getting out to ride.

Regardless, I can’t bring myself to go to a gym and walking isn’t the kind of workout I really want or enjoy. Biking is something I’ve done, enjoyed, can enjoy, and would like to get back into. If not for a hobby, at least to make sure I get some exercise. My previous job involved lots of walking, lifting, carrying, etc. That actually did go a long ways to helping keep myself more fit. But now that I sit down for 8 hours a day, I’m not getting the exercise I need. It also helps that a lot of my friends have bikes and are interested in doing something like this.