Sea Side Bicycle Path

(photos: ridingpretty)

A view I pass by often. There was this pretty blue cruiser parked alongside the path.
Joy Joy - learning to use my new camera, this is from my first day of shooting with it.

Bike park

Wheee! Bicycles Sheer Joy

Wheee! It's Spring - Ride Your Bicycle

(images top to bottom: via lovazah, twiggy, vintage photo of english girl, miss dior)

Sheer joy!

2010 Ouachita Challenge Pictures

Carolynn was able to take a few pictures. Next year we need to get some photos from Blowout Mountain and some of the sweet single track. The trails down in Arkansas ROCK!

Flood or no flood

Flooded rivers, within reason and without property damage, are cool. Rivers are cool to begin with, but when they go over their banks and start flowing all fast and dangerous, it's awesome. The Connecticut is in full effect right now. It's actually the highest that I can remember. There must have been a lot of snow up in Vermont, etc.


Great meadow is totally flooded right now and I guess RT 17a is like barely passable.
The Farmington River, on the other hand, isn't It's flowing a little bit more than usually, but floods in Farmington, Colinsville or Avon or anywhere where I rode my bike yesterday. I guess the wilds of central Mass didn't get that much snow.

Coffee Bike

Bikes Outside: Where the C.C.B. At?

This Monday's Bikes Outside takes us back nearly a week to Elizabeth Park's Pond House for last Tuesday's annual CCBA dinner. There was a nice mix of bikes there: Schleppi's Classic-style Schwinn, Ken's geniunely old Columbia Tourist, El Prez's Motobecane fixie, Robin's Trek Hybrid, Rich's Breezer city bike, and my own Yuba Mundo cargo bike. In this motley crew, we had an internally geared hub, 5, 6, and 7-speed derailleur hubs, and a fixed single-speed. There was a wide range of frame styles and materials represented, with three or four different rim sizes between them. It was a veritable Benetton ad for velo multiculturalism. That said, these bikes do have a couple of things in common. They were all ridden in the rain Tuesday night (hooray for fenders!) and they all belong to friends of mine. I've personally ridden and/or worked on four of the six pictured bikes at some point. While I get a warm mix of comfort and pride gazing upon a rack full of my friends' bikes, it also means that nobody outside of my circle of friends actually rode to this bike-centric event.

Wow. Really?

A CCBA member in the know told me they believed attendance for Tuesday evening's shindig was 171 or 172. If that figure is accurate, it means that just 3.5% of event attendees actually rode their bikes there. I later learned of at least one attendee who walked to the event. This boosts the verified non-motorized attendance to 4.1%. Keynote speaker Jeff Miller devoted a fair amount of time to identifying and seeking ways to improve such paltry single-digit percentages. The CEO and President of Alliance for Biking and Walking should have been preaching to the choir at such an event. This below-capacity bike rack seems to say we have a long way to go.

How did we come to have such a disappointing turnout? let's look at some possible culprits:

The Weather
It wasn't very nice out that night. The chilly temperature and light-to-moderate rain certainly were a letdown after the fantastic weather we had the previous week, but it really wasn't all that terrible. I didn't even bother bringing my rain pants, and I made it to the Pond House and back without regretting that choice. Rain gear can be had pretty cheaply from many sources, so this excuse doesn't really hold water.


The Clothes
This was not a gala event. Several people were wearing suits or dresses, but I didn't see designer threads of the sort that would have precluded anyone from hopping on a bike for a few minutes, especially with the aforementioned rain gear. Our own Ms. Longstocking rocked a nice dress AND high heels whilst riding her shiny new Jenny to and from the event, so it can be done.

The Distance
I'm glad that people from further-flung parts of New England saw fit to show their support, and I certainly won't fault someone for driving from Providence or New Haven to join us. The more, the merrier. Many people had their hometown written on their name tags, so I could see that a lot of Hartford, West Hartford and Bloomfield residents were in the house. These people didn't have terribly far to ride, yet they didn't.

The Toil
In spite of the cold, the rain and the darkness, six people rode to that dinner, and had a fun time doing so. With minimal preparation and good company, a dreary night can be transformed with the addition of two wheels and two pedals. In fact, five out of six of us continued riding to meet up in Hartford for a beer after the dinner ended. You could have, too. We already belong to the same group. I hope that next time you will join us.

I apologize for stating the obvious, but the best way to get more people on bikes is to get more people on bikes. If committed bike users are a fringe group among the advocates, our strength and relevance in the general population is at a tremendous disadvantage. An organization that encourages people to bike everywhere should strive to boost the ranks of its own members who do just that as often as possible.

RUN 10 Trail Revisited

Saturday,27 March : We have headed to Zone B (RUN 10) track. Seven rider took part for today's ride and they are : Zaki , Veyrone, Pak Non, Madi Boo Rider, Sham Custom Dept., Jan from Gedung MTB. We started from M&M Restaurant towards the Laka Selatan fly over. It was indeed a fast ride (except me!) and we finished the half loop for of Zone B at about 10.00am. Thinking of doing full loop next time. Or maybe organise a Hash ...........

Jan and Sham rode all the way from Kangar via Kuala Perlis - Changloon high way.

Bang Mat joined us before we hit the road, he's not joining by the the way.

(p.s : look at the fork ..... its rigid)

Sham fell and the most unexpected spot ..... laughter were shared together!


Madi a.k.a Boo Rider , he broght along his Spesh. Bro, couldn't wait to see your Super Bow WC in off road action

Discussing global matters !?!??............

and then I came to the picture ........

Me and Pak Non Kona.

Take five after long climb .

The View from the top.

Hahah! Me again, thanks Zaki .......

Downhiuuuuuu.........!!!!

All of us with white coloured Fox fork ...... thats why Madi took the picture hehehehh ...... he uses Manitou!

Notice the latest thing from my bike? Interframe .....

From the ride a week Before

Hairi

Sham and Ee Bintong

Ride Safely And Intelligently!

Urbano 1.0 by polygon

urbano 1.0 by polygon
product of dahon license technology

These last days

This post-race week has been more than a bit of a blur. After I rolled into the finish I waited nearly four hours to catch a ride back to town. At first I just sat in the "heating" tent and shivered; then I finally wrestled my boots back on and schlepped the 500 frigid yards to John's wind-blasted truck to grab my winter sleeping bag. I sat in a camp chair and cocooned myself in a -40-degree down shell and completely passed out as finishing racers, Arctic winds and commotion swirled around me.

Chris and I caught a ride back to Fairbanks with Robin Beebee and her husband, and we each succeeded in catching about a two-hour nap before John arrived at home and it was time to eat a half dozen meals and swap race stories. Skiers shuffled in and out of the house all day, telling tales of the trail, showing off battle scars and trying to remember faces and names as the line between consciousness and dreams became more and more blurred. I was up chatting with Ed and company until nearly 2 a.m., and at 4:30 I was suddenly awakened by a call from a taxi driver, asking why no one answered when he knocked on the door. I was so completely fargone that I stood at the window for several seconds, wondering why this yellow car was waiting for me and where exactly I was. And then I remembered — I was supposed to be up at 4! I have a 6 a.m. flight to catch! Thank you, Mr. Taxi Driver, for not abandoning me when I slept in!

By 10 a.m. I was back in Juneau, where six inches of wet snow coated the Mendenhall Valley. My Juneau taxi driver became stuck in my driveway and I had to help push him out. I spent an hour shoveling out my car and much of the lower half of Hughes Way because my knee was locked up and there was no way I could bike commute to work, and anyway, Pugsley was already on his way to Anchorage. I finally succeeded in freeing my car and then I went to work. I've been a gimpy zombie ever since.

Actually, I've just been preoccupied with packing, sorting, showing up on time for various appointments and visiting friends. With the exception of my knee, the after-effects of the White Mountains 100 wore off quickly. The feeling came back to my fingers by Wednesday morning. I finally got a full night of sleep on Wednesday night. My shoulders felt pinched, but beyond that I had no muscle soreness — a habit from my Tour Divide days, where I tend to ride at a pace I'd feel physically comfortable sustaining for 24 days, even though it would make sense, in a one-day race, to push for a pace I might only be able to sustain for 24 hours. I'm OK with that, though. I had a super fun race and it's nice, despite the crazy travel schedule, not to emerge from it feeling fully wrecked.

My right knee, though, has a few problems. I have been very gentle with it since returning to Juneau, icing every night, applying blue goop, taking Advil, massaging and stretching. Today I finally went to the gym and tried a gentle spin on the elliptical trainer. It loosened up nicely, but I haven't yet gained back the range of motion I'd need to ride a bicycle. Gah! I genuinely thought I was out of the water with this knee, being that it survived the 24-day Tour Divide without issue. But obviously there were things I failed to do, from my limited bike training right down to the adjustments for my Pugsley (I rode the race with my seatpost low because of all the 'techy' maneuvers.)

Not much I can do about it now but recover. I've made enough improvement in the past few days that I do think I'm not in for an extended recovery. And now is really an good time to take it easy anyway. I have to move out of my apartment by March 31, which means I have three more days to figure out how to transfer all of the belongings I wish to keep into the compartment of a Geo Prism (I love this part of moving: Prioritize, simplify, and purge.) Then I'm going to float around for a few days before catching a ferry out of town on April 4. There were lots of things I wanted to accomplish before leaving Juneau, but the combination of my Angry Knee and a rather dismal weather forecast may mean a more subdued goodbye to the beautiful Southeast.

My Orbea Multi-Faces

The Orbea Scandium has been with me for about 3 month. I bought these lightweight frame as it meet my own specifications as I was planning to go off-roads and exercising at the same time. Financially it has taken more than what I am budgetted earlier.

I have improved it slightly especially by upgrading the tyre and pedals as other parts used in the machine are quite up-to-date. Perhaps in near future if I wanted to reduce the weight further, the suggestion will be the Shimano XTR or SRAM XX group set with lightweight rims - that will reduce it to 9+ kg as compare to 11+kg now, but that is another investment altogether
Looking at my performance bicycling around, I am satisfied with the purchased as I have surpassed many MTB riders despite being new in this type of sport, as I was off-road for the past 3 month. This only indicate the determination is the key to succeed , as it always 90% rider and the other 10% is the bicycle

230 miles and growing...

The Cave Creek-Bradshaw Bikepack for next week is still growing with more singletrack. It has 18,000 feet of climbing with ~230 miles and is connecting the following:
T100
McDowells
Seven Springs
Spur Trail
Maricopa Trail
New River
Black Canyon Trail
Bradshaw Trail
Lane Mountain Trail



A sweet loop in the Bradshaws might come out of this, one that would allow you to do all of Black Canyon Trail (BCT), head up to Crown King on "singletrack" (used loosely here) and go down the south side of the Bradshaws on a combo of single/double track, loop back around north of Lake Pleasant to your car.

Ten Speed the Plow

The Bread Cycle Works project will be having their inaugural event tomorrow, Saturday, March 27 (rain date Sunday, 3/28) from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM at their site across from 1055 Broad Street.

Ted and fellow artists Emcee CM, Alexander Hill, James Holland and Rebecca Parker plan on doing every step of the bread-making process using human power and recycled objects. They are developing bike-based equipment for plowing and threshing the wheat. They seek to educate, engage and share this experience with the residents of the Frog Hollow neighborhood and beyond. For more info email tefremoff ("at") hotmail.com.

DIY: Vintage Looking Bicycle Basket

(photo source: A Lemon Squeezy Home)

This one is really a good DIY for a making a complete bicycle basket. It is not just a simple liner for a pre-existing bicycle basket... it is an actual bicycle basket in and of it's self!

This DIY tutorial comes from A Lemon Squeezy Home. It is just so perfect, especially now with spring and all the flowers waiting to be bicycled home. Go to the DIY.

Hmmm. I think I'll make mine in a plaid or a tweed fabric with some flower rosettes...